


Let's Try This Again...

by Yikes_Moldy_Potato_Fics (Sharkseye)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angel Soulbonds, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Comedy, Dean is Lucifer, Dom/sub Undertones, Episode: s05e08 Changing Channels, Kind of A Vessel!Fic, Lucifer's Cage, M/M, Mind Manipulation, Past Rape/Non-con, Possession, Possessive Dean Winchester, Season/Series 05, Slow Burn, Temporary Character Death, Torture, dark in places
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-13
Updated: 2013-05-13
Packaged: 2019-08-25 06:56:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 29
Words: 81,707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16656358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharkseye/pseuds/Yikes_Moldy_Potato_Fics
Summary: A different take on what could've happened during season 5, where it's not Lucifer that's been trapped in the cage, but Lucifer's grace. Where's Lucifer himself? Well, Dean's quite surprised to find he's got the answer to that question.Reposted Nov, 2018





	1. The Voice of an Extension

**Author's Note:**

> First off, I really appreciate all the people who read, commented on, and gave kudos to the previous small stories that this fic used to be made up of. I didn't want to delete the comments, but the stories were really bothering me, and I finally caved and got rid of them. I'm no longer in the Supernatural fandom, and this combined series isn't a story I can take much pride in. The writing is subpar, and while the plot could be good, too many parts aren't given the attention they need, aren't done right, or just plain don't belong. I'm squishing it into one story rather than removing it completely because deleted fics are sad, but honestly, it needs a full edit/rewrite, and I'm probably never going to get around to giving it the work it deserves. It has thus been relegated to my moldy trash fics psued. That being said, if you're new and think you can deal with the writing quality, go ahead and read.
> 
> If you're here because of my newer fics, please keep in mind that this is nowhere near quality writing.

Bright white light exploded from the entrance forming in the floor and Dean stumbled backwards, blindly throwing out a hand to be sure his brother was retreating with him.  He glanced for Sam, but found himself drawn almost unwillingly towards the pure brightness, obliterating every else until it was all he could see.  A joyful burst of _something_ bubbled up in him at the proximity, and it was only a lifetime of hunter instincts that had him continuing back instead of reaching forwards. 

The piercing note of an angel’s true voice split his brain for a second and then fell away, leaving room for a voice all too familiar and completely alien at once.

_‘ **Creation.  How pleasing to be with you again**.’_

A hand closed around his wrist and Dean forcibly ripped his attention away, twisting his arm to grab Sam’s wrist in return, pulling the other closer and throwing a hand up to shield them against the all-encompassing light.  So close to his brother he could see the other’s lips moving, but couldn’t hear anything but that too perfect voice speaking words he didn’t understand.

Then it was gone, all of it.

Jerking up in surprise, Dean gaped as he cast around wildly, gaze landing somewhat inanely on a lady and her baby, sitting across the plane aisle from him.  She looked up at his stare, giving him a slightly apologetic frown before returning to calming the slightly whimpering child.  Shit.  They were on a plane.  Shit.  _Shit._

“Dean.  Dean.  Look.”  Sam smacked a hand against his chest and he jerked away from immediately sympathizing with the miserable looking child.   

“ _What_.  What Sam- oh _no_.”  Dean swore, craning over his brother’s lap to see out the tiny plane window.

Way too far below them, a pillar of light shot up from the ground, obscuring the building it was coming from and disappearing into the sky, curved as if drawn towards them.   It was ridiculously pretty. 

It was also, he thought, tensing and forcing himself to turn away, the _devil_.  There wasn’t time to think it was pretty, or consider what the hell had happened, or what came next.  One thing at a time. 

He managed to keep up a stoic front through getting off the plane and exchanging short, curt words with Sam about where they needed to go next, but upon arriving at Chuck’s place, Dean found his resolve thoroughly tested.  Faced with a molar in Chuck’s hair and the knowledge that Cas was dead, it was all Dean could do not to go over drown himself in the bottom of a bottle.

 “Cas you stupid bastard” He said softly, shaking his head as the voice echoed the sentiment in different words but no less sorrow in its tone.  While Dean had been failing to get to his brother in time to stop the beginning of the freaking apocalypse, Cas had been facing down archangels and dying while doing so. 

“Stupid?” Sam questioned, turning to face Dean “He was trying to help us”

“Ya exactly” Dean spat, furious with himself, with Sam and with those douche bag brothers of Cas.  Sam asked what next and Dean replied harshly that he didn’t know, pissed at the flippant passing over of Cas’ death and yet knowing it wasn’t the right time to be pissed about it as he would have to do the same in order to keep somewhat sane.

 ** _‘The angels will be back, you must protect yourself’_** The voice hissed suddenly, bringing up one of Deans memories and then directing him to a door.

  Drawing the angel zapping sigil Cas had drawn what seemed so long ago in the green room, Dean tried to push the angel’s death from his mind, ignoring it like the he ignored the hammering pain behind his eyes.  The voice continued to whisper soothingly to him and Dean knew it was right, he simply couldn’t afford to break now, not just yet.  As the voice had predicted, Zachariah and his lackeys arrived and spewed out a lot of noise about the apocalypse and being on the side of the angels.  To this Dean barked out a bunch of readymade retorts, thankful that even though his mind had decided to take a haze break, he could still act somewhat normal.  Pressing the sigil, the angels disappeared in a flash of light like the one Lucifer had arrived in, and Dean couldn’t stop himself from breaking slightly.

“I learned that from my friend Cas you son of a bitch”

 

~*~

 

They left Chucks house right after and grabbed a motel room, Sam trying to make some half-hearted attempt at an apology for letting Lucifer free.  Having finally had enough with his brothers’ insistence at making everything better and his jack hammering head, Dean left the room under the excuse of getting something from the vending machines.  He didn’t even make it to the machines before sinking against the wall, stumbling around a corner and collapsing, back against the wall to bury his head in his hands.  Just resting there, he tried to make sense of it all.  Cas was dead, Lucifer had risen, his brother was in a fucking reasonable emo-bitch mode, and a random voice was speaking to him like they were old friends, which Dean really felt that they were. Could his life really get any worse?  Oh right, he could just remember that it was all his fault, that’s how it could get worse.  He had failed at the purpose Cas died for, he had broken the first seal, he had been too caught up in his Hell problems to protect Sam from the demon bitch, and he had let himself fall into an awe like focus on the wonder of the light from Lucifer, wanting to get nearer to it.  This whole thing was like a bad movie, he half expected a damsel in distress to get eaten by a dragon or some other petty failure that everyone else but him could fix.  Seriously, the devil rose, why the fuck was he so happy about it?

 ** _‘Because it wasn’t supposed to happen’_** The voice breathed, its tone something approaching glee  ** _‘But we changed it, we changed all of it.  Everything they thought would happen, we changed, broke apart and made new’_**

‘No one asked you, and for that matter, who and what are you?’ Dean retorted, murmuring aloud and trying to direct the thought in his head, freaked out about how not freaked out he was and so resorting to anger.  ‘ _Get out of my head!’_

 ** _‘I am you’_** It responded, then continued  ** _‘You are me.  I knew that the angels were setting this up, you with them and your brother with me, so I decided to throw a wrench into their plans, as humans say.  I waited, searching for a crack in my cage, an escape. When I finally found it, it was only the thinnest sliver, but I poured my grace through.  Imagine my surprise when I came across the chosen family only to find that the angels plan was over before it had begun! Mary Winchesters first born child did not exist, an empty vessel with no soul!”_**

At this last part Dean froze, he was Mary’s first born though, and he definitely had a soul.  Cas had once said that he had one off the brightest souls the angel had ever seen, though the hunter seriously doubted it.  If he had anything left of his soul it was probably tainted and damaged.  Anyways, end point, he did have a soul.  He opened his mouth to question this, but the voice spoke first

 ** _‘I must go and get our angel back.  I will tell you the rest when you are ready to hear it’_** The voice hissed, unanticipated worry coloring its tone

“Dean, what’s taking so long?” Sam’s voice came from around the corner and Dean pushed himself to his feet, falling back slightly at the head rush but managing to step away from the wall just as Sam came into view.

“They didn’t have any chips left” He explained, the lie for returning empty handed and taking so long coming to him easily as thoughts about what the voice had said raced through his mind

Sam gave him a slightly suspicious glare, but then seemed to remember he was groveling and the puppy dog face came back up.  “Are you okay? I mean, I know you were good friends with Castiel”

“Fine” Dean barked a little too loudly, pressing past Sam to get into the motel room.  He hadn’t been thinking about Cas, just having a friendly chat with the voice in his head that may or may not be something from Lucifer. “I’m beat, going to take a nap.  Wake me if anything changes.”

Throwing himself down on the motel bed still fully clothed, he pulled off his shoes and ignored Sam’s continued prodding, muttering short and clipped answers.  Laying down and closing his eyes he tried to talk to the voice again but got no answer, the head ache receding and then disappearing altogether.  Figures that the moment he started getting answers, they would be cut off halfway through. 

 

~*~

 

 ** _‘And see? I brought us our angel back’_** The voice said proudly, its unexpected reappearance loud and almost preening in the silence of Cas' departure  ** _'He thinks it was our Father, but it was us.  You love the angel, so I do too; I had to get him back.'_**

 _'What do you mean? How do you bring an angel back, I thought they just stopped existing'_  Dean was so shocked at the return of Cas and finding out that he was an angel condom that he didn’t even question the voices return or the last part of what it had said.  Oh well, he’d get to that later.

 ** _'Now that I’m back and you know about being the vessel, I can explain the rest.'_** The voice was still using that smug tone and ignoring Dean’s questions. He had to force himself to act normal as Sam talked to him, half focusing on their conversation about vessels and half focused on the voice.

 _'That'd be awesome, and don't leave halfway through this time either.  And then answer my question about Cas.'_   He said mentally, outwardly moving on autopilot as the voice started to talk.

 ** _'Starting where I left off, the empty vessel would be noticed before it was born, and I knew the angels would create an obedient soul to house Michael instead.  I do not want to kill my brother. I hate him and wish him dead, but I do not want to make that last strike.'_**  The voice started, the comfort it felt radiating out to Dean, making him relax even as the last statement caused discomfort he could recognize as his own.  His father’s words about Sam echoed in his head again, he could never kill his own brother.   ** _'So I pushed inside the vessel and cut off my grace into one moment of creation, even if it wasn’t true creation, just an extension. Our father didn’t create us to create others and I think I now know why. I’m finding that maybe Father was right in not letting us create life, it’s too uncertain.  I know and feel your entire life, I really didn’t expect that.  I know who I am, I know who I was, but I know who I am as you also.  It’s weird, you’re changing me much more than I thought.  But I suppose I will change you too, when we are one again.’_**

 _‘Dude, I have one angel wanting to climb inside me and you wanting to be ‘one’ with me.  Gotta say, I am definitely not on board with any of that.  No one’s doing freaky angel stuff with my body’_ Dean said with no little amount of annoyance in his tone.  Maybe Michael was in his head wanting to use him as a vessel, but everything else pointed to it being Lucifer, not that one would be better than the other.  He knew he should be more worried about it, but the feeling of the voice was so familiar that he couldn’t really bring himself to care. It meant him no harm.

 ** _‘You wouldn’t have a problem with Cas doing freaky angel stuff with your body’_** The voice said slyly, laughing and amused as it broke Deans train of thought and caused him to freeze.

“Shut up!” He hissed, then realized he had spoken aloud when Sam gave him a weird look “Um, nothing”

“You sure you’re okay Dean?” Sam asked, “You’ve been acting kind of strange”

Dean grimaced “Well ya, I’ve got a dick angel wanting to use me as a vessel; I’m not going to be peachy with that.”

Sam accepted that with a nod, but still looked worried.  Evidently deciding to save that conversation for later, he suggested they go check up on Bobby, something Dean agreed on.  They had just gotten to the hospital when the voice spoke again.

 ** _‘I’m sorry Creation, but I must sleep, we aren’t complete yet, and so I’m still not strong enough to stay with you for long’_** The voice sounded contrite, and to Deans surprise he didn’t actually want it to leave, he had missed it during the period of silence before Cas came back.   ** _‘I’m not leaving, just going to sleep.’_** It assured him, sensing his sadness over the perceived abandonment  ** _‘It won’t be for long.  I need to use grace to heal the tear between us before we can be together for long; we aren’t strong enough on our own.  I need to take another angels grace, but he only angel we’re close to enough to get the grace from is Castiel and the amount of grace we need would kill him’_**

 _‘You are not killing Cas!’_ He spat at the voice, his knuckles going white on the car door as he opened it. 

A sense of reassurance was sent through him and the voice spoke softly to pacify him ‘ ** _No, we will not kill Castiel.  I think we love Castiel.’_**

With that, something in the back of his mind seemed to grow lesser, and the comforting presence of the voice was gone.  It felt like a piece of his soul had been ripped away.

 

~*~

 

One moment he was speaking with Lucifer in Sam's body in a fucked up zombie future, and the next he was back in the motel room, staring at Zachariah.  Totally shaken at the future he had just witnessed, he spat out some half assed comment that on any good day you couldn’t catch him even thinking it was so bad.  Zachariah replied with some crap about how he should say yes to Michael before all that happened, but Dean could barely hear him over the sudden roaring in his head.  Great, so the voice was asleep for days, through them finding out Sam was Lucifer’s vessel, to which Dean had felt distinctly amused, as if he knew something no one—including himself—else knew, and through the future he had just been in, both things he could’ve used help getting through, and then decides to wake up and beat at his head now.  Guess it’s better late than never.

 ** _‘Yes! Here it is!’_** The voice yelled in his head, propelling him forwards.  Dean managed to make himself stumble around Zachariah instead of into him, and then again forced himself to answer Zachariah’s speech with a weak, ‘Nah’.  The roaring didn’t lessen one bit, and he felt something reach out, stealthily grabbing hold of the angel as he advanced, a furious look on his face and words flying.  Then, once again, for the second time in only a few minutes, Dean was in a completely different place and the roaring stopped, though Dean could feel what must be a line tethering Zachariah’s grace to the same place the voice was.  It took him a second to realize he was on the side of a road somewhere, and he turned to find Cas looking at him with something like affection.  Ignoring the voice, which had now started muttering to itself in something that definitely wasn’t English, he acknowledged the only angel actually worth his wings.

“Pretty nice timing Cas” He said, overwhelmed by seeing  _his_  Cas, not the drugged up sex guru of the future. 

“We had an appointment” Cas replied, still looking so glad to see the hunter, and Dean felt a wave of affection rush through him that was entirely his own. 

Stepping forwards and reaching out to grab Cas’ shoulder, Dean debated on hugging the angel, but instead settled for one completely and totally heartfelt statement.  “Don’t ever change”

A small grin grew on Cas’ face, but then he questioned, becoming more serious “How did Zachariah find you?”

Reaching in his pocket and grabbing his phone, he answered with a small quip about Jehovah’s Witnesses, and dialed a well-known number.  He needed to do whatever he could to change the possibility he had just seen.  And currently, that looked like not leaving Cas to his own devices on becoming human, and working with Sam. 

“What are you doing?” Dean looked up and started, realizing that both Cas and the voice had asked that at the same time.  He answered both.

“Something I should’ve done in the first place.” Calling Sam was the right thing to do, they would have to meet up, stick together if they wanted to live through this without becoming angel condoms.  The voice expressed its displeasure about that through emotions, but said nothing.

 

~*~

 

After asking Cas to retrieve his car, Dean drove up to a small grassy area below some railroad tracks, pausing for a moment to rest his head against the wheel.  He didn’t know what the voice had been doing since Zachariah appeared in his motel room, though he could feel it and the douche angels grace.  He had no idea how he knew it was grace, but he knew he was right about it.  Both him subconsciously and the voice knowingly were acting like a leech with it, draining grace from Zachariah and pulling it into themselves, making Dean feel woozy and like he was on the edge of some high up precipice. 

 _‘What are you doing?’_ He asked the voice, trying to fight down the urge to curl into a ball and go to sleep.  It seemed startled at the question, but answered anyways

 ** _‘I already told you, I needed another angels grace to heal us, using our own wouldn’t have worked because I require all of it.  Can’t you tell?’_** It asked softly, and Dean realized that he could tell.  He could almost feel his soul, a shard of something so much greater pushing itself towards the voice and what it was doing.  It was then that he noticed that Zachariah’s grace wasn’t the only one in his head, almost at the same time realizing how terrible a description that was.  The voice had just built a bridge between him and Zachariah to leech out the angel’s grace, painful as it must be for him.  The grace that was truly being pulled inside his head was so much brighter, beautiful and overjoyed to be connected with him.  It felt like coming home, being whole for once.

 ** _‘I do not know what will happen when we are finally healed, but we should brace ourselves. I am changing you as you change me.  This has never been done before’_** A thrill of exhilaration ran through him at this last sentence, and it was neither his emotion nor the voices.  Dean squeezed his eyes shut, whatever the voice was doing, healing them, it was working and they were no longer as separate as before, fitting together literally as two different parts of a whole.  A ringing started to sound in his ears as bright white light filled the impala, and Dean only had one moment to hope that Sam wouldn’t drive up in the middle of this before something inside seemed to click, and all went silent. 

There was no sound for almost a mile around, no birds chirping or even wind through grass, the light and ringing disappearing like it never existed.  Somewhere else, two charred wings were now burnt into the ground underneath a balding man, a dead vessel to a dead angel.  Closer, but further at the same time, a trench coat clad figure stopped, glancing around and frowning slightly, aware that something had changed, but not knowing quite what.  A tall man with long hair fiddled with the radio of his car as it screeched and fizzled, nervous as he drove towards the place where his brother was meeting hi.  At the epicenter of it all, a man who had gone to Hell for his brother’s life and then been pulled out by an angel who became his best friend, and an archangel who had disobeyed and was cast out to rot in a cage for thousands of years sat in a sleek black car.  They were not ‘they’ anymore, but instead only one, as he had been when first created.  The complete being leaned back from the wheel to recline in the seat, a relaxed smile on his face as the world around him started to move again.

Lucifer opened his eyes.


	2. Decisions, Decisions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Lucifer heals himself, he has to decide what to do next. Order of decisions unimportant: the apocalypse, his Sasquatch human brother, his angelic hopefully soon more than brother, those pesky angels, and most importantly, as an archangel, can he still taste pie?

Lucifer slid out of the car, standing up and breathing deeply as he leant back against his baby.  It had been thousands of years in Hell since he had been whole, but now that he was, it was confusing as anything.  Like he was two completely different personalities trying to fit together, not even getting started on the whole apocalypse thing.  As Lucifer he kind of still wanted to destroy everything, but as Dean he liked the world and wanted it to keep spinning, all the people included.  He had thought that his life as an archangel would instantly blink out his life as a human, but because he had spent so much time alone in his cage, it was as if his angelic anger and destructive tendencies had just faded, become a tightly held memory instead of a current rage.  Even with the angelic memory, he remembered his life as Dean much clearer than he remembered heaven and his siblings.  Then again, that was probably the because of his time alone in his cage.  Seriously, Alastair had tortured his human self for thirty years before he broke, but if he had tried solitude? He was pretty sure he would’ve broken years earlier. 

His Father had probably done that on purpose, Lucifer thought sourly, He must’ve known that Lucifer would’ve become simply too tired to hold to anything other than a hopeful thought of destruction if he was let out of his cage.  Could’ve been the reason He had Michael throw him in the cage instead of just killing him. Then again, Lucifer probably ruined it for himself as well, breaking part of his mind off and becoming human.

Speaking of being human, his vessel fit, worked perfectly like a true vessel even though it technically wasn’t.  The only odd thing was a piece of grace pulsed in the handprint scar that his little brother had placed while pulling his human self out of hell.   And Hell, really?  Fuck that noise.  His angelic self had been rotting in the pit and so his human self had decided to trade his life for his brothers, sending the rest of him to the pit.  And there’s another thing he had to deal with, what was he going to do about his human brother?  Dean had called him to meet up, but now it was Lucifer who’d be meeting up with his prophesied vessel.  Not that he’d use it now, he had grown up with this meat-suit and was quite fond of it.  So what to do with the kid?  He had loved Sam enough to die for him as a human, and still loved him as an angel, he doubted he’d even be able to kill him

As if his thoughts had summoned him, Lucifer heard the growl of a vehicle and looked up to see a tan colored car driving his way, the familiar form of his Sasquatch brother behind the wheel.  The door opened and Lucifer made a spontaneous choice.  It didn’t have to be a permanent choice, or to lead anywhere, but it was the best he could do now.  He stood and walked forwards as Sam got out to meet him, Lucifer pulling his angelic self inwards and wrapping a cloak his human self would compare to Harry Potters around him, making him invisible to the supernatural eye.  Stopping in front of the tan car, Lucifer spoke.

“Sam.”  He paused, not sure if he was waiting for a reaction, then reached into his jacket, pulling out Ruby’s knife.  Holding it in front of him for a second, he bit his lip and flipped it over.  “If you’re serious about this, and you want back in, you should hang onto this.”

 

~*~

 

Getting a motel with his brother was completely and utterly mind-blowing. It was also completely normal.  Lucifer parked the impala, him and Sam got out, went to the front desk and rented a room for the night.  They brought their bags in and threw them on the beds, Lucifer claimed the bed closest to the window and Sam got the other one.  Exactly the same as if he’d been human. 

Needing a moment to sort through all the different things he had been thinking about on the drive over, Lucifer pushed a thought into Sam’s mind, not something he was terribly proud of, and his brother decided to have a shower.  After glancing at the archangel like he was afraid that he would disappear if Sam stepped out of the room for a second, his little brother turned to go.  Lucifer just smirked at him and started to pull his guns out to clean.

As soon as Sam had disappeared behind the door, Lucifer dropped the façade, the smirk gone as fast as if it had never been there.  So, things he need to decide on were, in no particular order: Sam, Castiel, Michael, Apocalypse, Hell and humanity.  Just the little things.  Grimacing, he decided to start with Sam, as that had already kind of been decided.  So much of his human life--which had been indefinitely more eventful than his angelic one--had overlapped and ended up taking first place in his decision making.  He wouldn’t kill Sam, it would be like killing Michael, except slightly different in the fact that he wasn’t too fond of Michael right now, and he loved Sam.  He wouldn’t be telling Sam about the whole devil thing either.  Ever. 

There, one down, five to go.  Since he’s already thinking about Michael, he might as well get him done too.  For a second Lucifer just let himself methodically clean his guns, but then he forced himself to focus, resigning himself to a lot of unwanted decisions in his immediate future.  Like he had told himself before,—and wasn’t that a sentence he didn’t think very often—he didn’t want to kill his brother.  He had been slightly exaggerating when he spoke of the depth of his negative feelings for Mikey, but the major idea still stood.  He didn’t like the guy.  Michael had been too close to their Father, whom Lucifer was still angry at.  But he didn’t want him dead, so he wouldn’t kill him.  He could just leave him to do what he wanted and figure out what to do when he had to.  It would work fine.

Lucifer grinned as he realized what he had just done.  Looked like the lazy side of his humanity was going to play a big part on his angelic side too, avoidance was awesome.  He could just avoid the apocalypse too, Lucifer thought, then froze.  Where had that come from?  Didn’t he still want Earth destroyed, Hell rising to cover everything?  Slowly going back to cleaning, he frowned.  He had spent forty years in the pit outside his cage, and they had been terrible, something he could never wish on the innocents around him.  Sure, some people deserved to go to Hell, but not everyone.  And wasn’t that a thought.  Lucifer could actually change things.  Go down to Hell, reassert his leadership, and actually fix it, make Hell to work instead of just mindlessly changing people into demons.  As a human he had had a self-loathing complex and thought he was a terrible person, but that was really nothing in comparison with being the devil, Dean Winchester wouldn’t have deserved to go to Hell, were he human.  Lucifer could try and fix that now, go to Hell and rearrange the place for the different types of people, make it more designed for accurate punishment. 

So, redesigning Hell to make it correct punishment friendly.  That pretty much sided with stopping the apocalypse, which would mean dealing with the angels.  At a time like this, help from his brilliant little brother would come in hand, not that he could just ask.  ‘ _So hey Sam, I’m Lucifer.  Any ideas on rearranging Hell and stopping the angels from their lovely apocalypse?’_ Oh yes, that would go over well.  He’d just have to make due on his own.  The angels couldn’t destroy the world if he didn’t fight Michael, and if he went out of his way to rearrange Hell and ignore Heaven, maybe helping out here and there on Earth with stuff caused by angels or demons, he might be able to get them to give up.  They’d probably attack Hell to try and get some retaliation, but if Lucifer could find some loyal help, he might be able to keep too much from happening.  Castiel could help him.  He’d just have to convince him he wasn’t trying some elaborate scheme, but after that Lucifer was pretty sure the young angel would stay with him.  As Dean he had loved the angel, though never told him or planned to, not wanting to destroy their friendship.  As Lucifer he was still in love with the little angel, but now, seeing all the things Cas had done for him, he could tell that there was a chance his feelings might be reciprocated.

As a human he had put far too little stock in what Cas had done for him.  Falling from heaven, disobeying, those things were huge for an angel to do!  He remembered doing it himself.  Probably the most terrifying thing he had ever done was making that first step in disobeying.  Afterwards he had been too immersed in hatred to really think about it, but for an angel like Cas, who was doing all this for humanity, it must be so much worse.  Not even knowing if it would all be for nothing.  Which, Lucifer thought, considering recent events, he probably did think.  Granted, Lucifer had brought him back to life, but the angel had died trying to help Dean.  Fury at the archangel who smote Cas rolled through him, and he decided that he would have to find out which one it was.  No one messed with his angel and got away with it. 

“Seriously dude, you look like you’re trying to burn a hole in the gun with your mind.” Lucifer totally didn’t jump.  He really didn’t. 

“Just thinking” He replied, leaning back and putting the gun down before looking at Sam. He hadn’t even noticed that he was finished.

Sam scoffed, but there was a tentative look on his face. “Well now I know it’s the apocalypse”

“Shut up bitch” Lucifer shot back, laughing.  Thank Father that he hadn’t completely lost this easy way of talking with his brother.  Lucifer purposefully didn’t think about the fact that when Sam found out who he was, he would certainly lose it. 

“Jerk” Sam answered, his tone grateful and indicating that he had obviously been worried about that too.  Man, he had no idea.  “So I was thinking” Sam started, reverting to serious mode “Why don’t we start small, search for a hunt somewhere near?”

“Sure” Lucifer said brightly, killing things, now that was easy “You already know of something?”

Sam grinned at that, and proceeded to tell him about what looked like a weird haunting a town over in the direction he had come from, suggesting they could eat, sleep and get back on the road.  Lucifer found himself reacting as he would’ve as Dean, and realized even more just how much he enjoyed it.  He knew it wouldn’t last, but he would take this happiness for as long as he could get it. 

Then another thought slipped into his mind.  Angels didn’t need to sleep, and Cas had never shown much interest in food, so would he still be able to eat?  He had never taken a vessel before, so he had never had the chance to try it, not that he would’ve before living as Dean.  He thought he’d probably cry if he couldn’t taste anything.  He must’ve let some of the horror he felt be displayed on his face, as he had to reassure Sam he was okay.  Continuing to listen to his brother, he decided that not thinking about it until the next time he had to eat was his best option now.  Lucifer had better still be able to taste pie, or some random being would be getting smote.

 

~*~

 

Lucifer did manage to keep the two of them working together and happy for quite a while, considering all the factors.   A bunch of ghosts, a demon posing as a celebrity and a couple vamps later, they were trapped in a warehouse, surrounded by seven more vamps in addition to the two decapitated on the ground.  Ya, they were pretty much screwed fighting like humans.  Lucifer only had one needle of dead man’s blood left, having lost his blade earlier, and Sam was being thrown across the room, weaponless and smashing into the wall.  The vampire Sam was fighting reached down to grab him and Lucifer acted on instinct.  Spreading his wings inside a vessel for the first time, he was front of the vamp and burning his essence out in a second, one palm slapped against his forehead.  The other vamps froze at this display of power and Lucifer glanced over at them, all of them simultaneously being burnt away.  Checking to make sure none had gotten away, even though he knew perfectly well they were all dead, he finally turned to face Sam, dreading seeing his face. 

“What the hell!”  Sam yelled even before Lucifer had finished turning, and he shot the hunter a self-depreciating smile

“Surprise?”  He ventured, not managing to stop it from being a question.  This was so not going well

“Michael” Sam spat, and the sheer hatred on his face almost surprised Lucifer

“Umm, no” Lucifer said, biting his lip “Hello Sam.  I’m Lucifer”

The look of shock that went across Sam’s face would’ve been comical at any other time.  Now, not so much.  His eyes narrowed again and he sneered at the archangel, something Lucifer had to give him credit for.  “Well then why the hell are you inside my brother.  I’m your vessel”

“Kind of complicated.  The child that would’ve become Dean Winchester didn’t have a soul, so, naturally, I pushed some of my grace through a crack in my cage, placed it in the empty vessel and cut it off.  I’ve always been Lucifer, I just didn’t know until a little after you opened my cage, when I put myself back together.”  Lucifer explained, condensing it

“Ya right” Sam sneered, pressing back against the wall. “Well, if you’re really Dean, you won’t mind letting me go.”

Lucifer felt a pang of hurt at that, but acknowledged it was probably the best thing to do now, let Sam work through it on his own.  “Dude! Why would I save you from the vampires if I was going to kill you?”

He moved slightly to step forwards, but before his foot touched the ground Sam was shouting, praying loudly.  “Castiel! You need to get down here now! Dean’s gone!”

At the flutter of wings Lucifer cursed silently, his little brother appearing in the room with them.  Cas took a step forwards, his head tilted in confusion as he saw Lucifer, then his eyes widened and he disappeared, reappearing beside Sam only to fly off again.  The sound of Cas’ wings echoed in the silence, and they were gone, leaving Lucifer alone with the bodies of nine dead vampires.

“Well fuck.”


	3. Let’s All Have Big Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the big reveal that really shouldn't have happened like that, Lucifer decides to tackle one problem at a time while putting the rest on the back burners. Next stop, Hell.

Annoyed, Lucifer landed in front of the impala, resisting the urge to punch the hood in anger. Waiting for Cas to come back had yielded no results, and a quick mental search for them hadn't worked either.  Cas’ sigils had done their job well and Lucifer assumed the angel had added more protection around himself and the younger Winchester after finding about Lucifer.  Nevertheless, he knew where they'd go, Bobby's.  He was itching to go and talk to them there, but a side effect of using his grace to burn out the vampires was that he was back on the supernatural radar, and he had no desire to lead anything to his family.  Deciding to leave them alone for now, Lucifer got into his baby and started it up. He technically didn't need to drive anywhere, but it was soothing.  Normal angel flight was much too fast, and he wouldn't be able to bring the impala if he used the slower kind.

Since he no longer had to worry about demons showing up and Sam finding out, in addition to being alone, Lucifer resolved to start first on the issue of Hell.  He could drive out somewhere and be a bit flashy with his grace to attract demons, or he could just fly into Hell.  If he flew there it'd be quicker, but with the first option he could root out which demons were more loyal, power hungry or just plain stupid.  That'd be useful, as he'd need all the help he could get with this, but a third option came to mind.   He could just start with searching for demons who he knew, and would therefore be more likely to help him. 

Ruby was dead, and while his human side was quite happy with that, his angelic side knew that she would've been useful.  Dammit, he really shouldn't have killed her.   Alistair may also have been useful, but Lucifer was really grateful that demon was dead.  Far too many unpleasant memories, he thought with a shudder.  There was always Meg who was apparently up and kicking.  The bitch had possessed Bobby and Sam and just been a general bitch for quite a while, but he could probably buy her loyalty.  Keep enemies close or dead, and killing all the demons who might help him wouldn't be a very good start to leading Hell.  There was also Bella, though he hadn’t seen her since she had gone to Hell, so he didn’t know if she was a demon yet.  He could almost guarantee that she was, she had been known to do everything that was best for her.  She could be bought with safety.

And then here was Paimon.  He was a demon who had been extremely loyal to Lucifer during the time of his fall and was probably his best friend, maybe something deeper.  Deeper in what direction, lover or kin they had never had the chance to find out.  He had been captured before Lucifer and trapped in a different part of hell, but was probably the only being Lucifer had trusted before being caged.  He had been furious when Paimon had been captured, at both the other angels and Paimon himself, but now the rage had died down and he was more worried about the demon.  He knew Paimon had managed to escape occasionally and flee to earth, but was always pulled back to his entrapment, forced to try and get out all over again.  Lucifer couldn’t just leave him down in hell to be tortured, so freeing him would be first priority before revealing himself to hell. 

Resolving to leave as soon as possible he flew, grabbing the impala and depositing it in front of Bobby’s house.  Looking at the house for a few moments, knowing his whole living family as a human would be in it, he steeled himself, hoping against hope that he could fix things there.  Taking a deep breath, he hid his true nature, vacated his baby and plunged, twisting through the place between and entering Hell.

 

Lucifer tore through the realm, hiding himself from its inhabitants even as the place itself welcomed him with open arms.  Throwing out thin invisible tendrils of grace, he caught a trace of Paimon and directed his flight towards it.  It came most strongly from one of oldest pits, and he flew down to a box made from an obsidian-like material, landing softly in front of it.  Walking up to the box he saw through it, staring in revulsion and with a memory of pain from enduring tortures much like this one.  The demon inside was impaled on thin needle like protrusions coming from all around the box, while a boiling hot liquid substance looped endlessly through them, boiling the demon from the inside out. 

Using his grace, Lucifer waved his hand and the box dissolved, Paimon falling from it to lie gasping on the floor, twisting in agony at the release.  Crouching down, Lucifer placed his hand on the demon and healed him, pulling back together the black ink of his true form at the same time as he created a vessel much like the appearance Paimon had worn before to cover him.  Moving his hand over slightly, he covered a holding sigil that had been burned into the demons very essence and erased it completely.  Paimon scrambled up and bared sharp teeth that appeared behind the guise of a young man with a slightly feminine face, fear and confusing both rolling through him at the sight of Lucifer hidden in his vessel.

“Who are you?” The demon gasped, trying to back away but having nowhere to go.  While fixing a demon in hell wasn’t so hard to do, it couldn’t be with all the tearing tortures, creating a vessel took an incredible amount of power and so it would be natural to be wary.  That with burning away the sigil on his arm, and Lucifer was sure he was baffled.  In hell, no one helped anyone else unless they gained something from it.

“Don’t you recognize your old friend?”  Lucifer asked and cocked his head to the side, letting some of his grace shine through his eyes, but not enough to alert anyone else.  Paimon gaped at him, and this time stepped forwards, half raising his hand as if to touch him but aborting the motion at the last second

“You got out” He breathed, joy flickering across his face before resignation.  “I failed you” The demon cringed slightly as if expecting some form of retribution, and Lucifer inwardly winced.  Crap, he really had been a bastard back then if his best friend thought he was going to be smote for being trapped in continuous torture. 

“Ya, well, I didn’t do too well either, I just got out myself. The reason I’m here is because I trust you, and need someone to help me in changing hell.  I’d love for you to help me, but if you don’t want to I can promise there’ll be no retribution.” He assured, and the disbelief on Paimon’s face saddened him slightly.  Nonetheless, the demon nodded slowly and Lucifer sighed in relief.  Deciding to act on his words, he quickly outlined what had happened to him, including the major points of being human, and what he planned to do next.  By the end of it Paimon was grinning, amusement dancing on his face as he became more like the mischievous demon Lucifer had always known

“And so you need me to be your demon deputy.” He smirked at Lucifer “I think that can be arranged.” 

 

~*~

 

Upon landing in the throne room they were immediately surrounded, demons and archdemons alike appearing to leer and wail at them.  He didn’t recognize many of them, but quite a few seemed to recognize him as Dean Winchester.  Hell itself recognized him as its leader, and so his landing had been perfect, appearing directly onto an enormous throne made out of shattered bone pieces in the middle a great hall of ice, Paimon standing to his right.  Most humans would think that Hells throne room was all fire and brimstone, but as Lucifer was its king, it reflected his very grace, exploding in shades of blue to white with pulses of black, completely covered in a frosting of ice.

A few of the demons threw themselves forwards to attack the perceived hunter, and Lucifer released the hold on his grace, exploding with power until he was barely inside his vessel.  His grace had been twisted from his stay in Hell, and while it was still pure bright light, darkness existed at the heart of it, a deep black pulse that felt like void.  After letting his grace show for a few more seconds, he folded himself back into his vessel but didn’t hide his true nature. 

“You should all know by now that I have risen” Lucifer stated, knowing that every being present would recognize him, and if not, then they would be able to deduce from the way the room was reacting to him who he was, plus the presence of a free Paimon would be telling.  “You all think that my rising will also raise Hell to cover the earth.  I will still these thoughts from your minds, earth will not be our battleground. I will be implementing many changes and plans, things that you will not understand and I do not expect you to.  However, know this above all else.   I will not tolerate challenges to my leadership of Hell, or any perceived betrayals.   I suggest you make your loyalties clear as there will be worse fates for those who wait longer to betray hell.”

Say what you want about demons, most of them sure had a keen sense of self preservation.  For the most part they looked accepting, grateful that their leader had returned, if uncertain of his motives, but a few of the demons with higher colored eyes looked rebellious.

“If earth is not to be the battleground, then where do we attack?”  A red eyed demon stepped forwards to ask

Lucifer grinned at this, a feral smile that had nothing of the human he had become in it.  “We do not attack, not yet.  We prepare, evolve, and assemble.  The angels are our enemies, so we will fight them rather than the humans.  Our battlefield will be in the place between heaven, hell, earth and purgatory.  If the angels attack we will fight back, but there will be no advancements until I say so.”

He could see quite a few of demons were angry at this, and just as he thought, a few of them stepped forwards, some in vessels flashing their eyes, and some in their real  forms, twisted and nonhuman.  The red eyed demon who had spoken was one of the ones who seemed to accept his answer

“You are too late coming back to take control!  We need blood and battle, not a soft angel” One of the black eyed ones hissed and quite a few charged at Lucifer.  Still smiling, he raised his hand, fingers splayed and palm to the side.  Nonchalantly he closed his hand, one finger curling shut at a time, and the demons froze in place, stuttering and gasping as they were caught in his will.  Twisting his hand, they died, even the four archdemons who had joined them being torn to shreds by a needle filled fire that came from the depths of hell itself to cleanse the traitors.  Hell might crave blood as well, but it was not unintelligent, it understood the plays of power, and it answered to Lucifer.  In this domain, no one could topple him from his throne. 

“Anyone else?”  Lucifer asked as he released his hand and small puffs of sulfur fell to the ground where the demons had stood.  There was complete silence except for Paimon laughing slightly and Lucifer smirked at him, finally turning back to take pity on the rest of the demons.  Strengthening his voice until it could be heard all throughout hell he spoke.  “All useful or leading demons will come here to the throne room to listen and join in planning.  All others will continue what they are doing and not interrupt, you can ask for information afterwards.”

They sprung instantly into motion.  Almost all of the black eyed demons left, while the higher ups stayed, more pouring in.  He waited, glancing over at Paimon again to see him grinning gleefully, happy to have a chance at getting back at some of the demons who had helped torture him with his newly regained freedom.  Inwardly smiling, Lucifer stood, facing the demons as they finished assembling.  There were roughly two hundred present in total, with fifteen major demons standing in the front, empty stops where the four he had previously killed would’ve been.  Time to face the music and rearrange an entire system of torture and hell within a quite limited time frame.  Oh yes, this was going to be so much fun

 

~*~

 

Finally the meeting finished and Lucifer stole away with Paimon into his personal room, behind the throne and a set of large marble doors.  Laughing slightly at the décor he collapsed into a bone chair in front of a blood caked window and gestured for the demon to make himself at home.

“Dude, Martha Stuart would have a fit if she saw this place” He sniggered, taking in the disgusting gore splattered walls and all the rest of the corruption that had weaseled its way into the room “Completely terrible painting job”

“You kidding?  She’d probably be more upset about the non-matching furniture” Paimon objected, stretching out to push over a vase with his foot.  Grinning, Lucifer waved his hand and the room rearranged itself so it looked like one of the sleazy motel rooms the Winchesters had stayed at throughout their hunting career.  Paimon made a soft sound of surprise and raced to the window to look out over the quietly normal outdoors scene Lucifer had created.  For being a demon, the guy could sure act like a human child when curious.  If only the rest of the demons were so easy to be around. 

The meeting had gone well, all things considered, with Lucifer striding into hell, demanding the presence of the highest ranking demons and then just told them what to do. He had only had to smite four more demons, who had just had their whole purposes changed and weren't too happy about it.  Even though he had been a human for a while, at heart Lucifer was still the devil, so not everything changed to bunny rabbits and rainbows. 

The main new rules Lucifer had implemented revolved around demons actions on earth and the different wings and levels of hell.  Demons were still allowed to go up to earth and possess people, but they could only possess the already hell bound and play with the corrupt.  Anyone who wasn't tainted past a certain point was off-limits.  The hunter part of him may have rebelled, but all of him knew that not all monsters were inhuman.  Some of the hell-like experiences he had had as a younger human had left no doubt of that.

The levels of hell had mapped out in changes and were currently in the process of the shift.  One of the changes included an entire new level for people who had gotten to hell like he had as a human, crossroads deals.  He would be personally going there periodically to sift through them and decide where they went from there.  The people who didn't go to heaven but didn't deserve hell were also placed in a new wing of hell, one where they could serve penitence and possibly eventually make it to heaven.  Demons would still be created out of the truly corrupt and malicious, but Lucifer had created a small team of more ‘inventive’ demons to figure out new purposes for them. Not as replacements, but in addition.

The war took up quite big part of the orders he had given out.  There would be no apocalypse, but demons were allowed to gang up on and attack angels who were harming humanity, the earth or parts of hell with the goal of sending them back upstairs.  The people were also to be protected from any harmful parts of prophesies the angels tried to jump start, making quite a simple solution to the base instincts of a demon.  The demons could take out their bloodlust on either torturing souls in hell, or fighting against soldiers of God that Lucifer was pretty sure weren't following Gods orders. 

"Castiel's the angel who pulled your human self out of hell, isn't he." Paimon stated, bringing Lucifer out of his thoughts "What do you plan on doing with him?"

That had been something else Lucifer had made sure everyone understood.  If they came across the angel Castiel, they were to not kill him, but bring him to Lucifer.  He had clearly stated that anyone else who killed Castiel would be punished, but he let them believe it was some sort of personal vendetta against Thursday’s angel instead of the truth.    He had also given orders about Sam to be left alone, but that had gone over easier with him spitting out something about not letting anybody harm his true vessel.  Lucifer had told Paimon the rest of the story though, and if he wanted his two families to work together he supposed he could reveal this too. 

"Keep him safe.  He's already been smote once for rebelling against heaven, it'll make life easier if hell isn't gunning for him as well.  Hopefully he won’t hate me too much for being the devil" Lucifer grimaced then added, "Still don't know who smote him, but I can't wait to get my hands on them."

"You've become very…  Protective since being human" Paimon mused, rubbing absently at his upper arm where the sigil had been and looking contemplative

"I'll take that as a good thing" Lucifer said, slightly uncertain as Paimon grinned at his response.

“You can go right ahead.” He laughed, the familiar smirk reappearing on his face.  He’d have been good friends with Gabriel, Lucifer decided, they both had that assumed scheming personality that would fit best with a Trickster.  “But about you being the devil, I’m sure he won’t hate you once he finds out you’re also Dean Winchester.  From what you’ve said he gave up quite a lot for your human self.”

Lucifer smiled at the consoling tone, he had missed Paimon, his ability to mock and torture someone like a true king of hell, then turn around and get worried over a few missing feathers.  Thank Father he had this little family of two back.  Now all he had to do was figure out how to make amends with his other family of the two hunters and angel who had been so important to his human life.  Then he had to somehow get the three different species to accept each other and get along.  And they said that if you didn’t want to be disappointed you shouldn’t dream big.


	4. Kill! Kill! Ki- Oh, Oh Crap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Lucifer is off fixing hell, Paimon comes across one of the archangels friends who isn't exactly in their top condition. Unsexy binding, irritating flying and future mock-worthy explanation's follow

Paimon twisted around, motioning for the other demons to stay back.  The lesser leaders in the group nodded and he grinned.  He hadn’t thought he would ever lead any of his legions again, but since Lucifer had come and released him from his torture, he was finding he had been wrong about a lot of things.  Thankfully wrong.  When he had been captured, the worst part had been that he let Lucifer down and wouldn’t be able to help him anymore.  He had been sure that the next time he saw the archangel, Lucifer would be there to kill him.  Instead, in the past three weeks in hell, Lucifer had freed Paimon, reinstated him as a king of hell and changed him into an archdemon, turning his black eyes white, all while working on rearranging and changing the rest of hell.  He had allowed Paimon to get close again, physically and mentally.

Paimon had almost two hundred of his old legions of demons back and his old rank of imperial legate, a major rank name they had stolen from the Roman Empire.  Ah, good times.  Anyways, with his demons already accustomed to him, he was able to return to his usual tactile self, them not reading anything extra into his often intimately familiar personality or being offended.  It was awesome when everyone knew you and liked you, made life easier and more fun.  So, naturally, he had decided to celebrate by taking one of his legions to go hunting with and then had let the rest stay separate.  Due to Lucifer’s humanity, they couldn’t hunt people and Paimon wanted a challenge, so about half of them were in their true forms and they were hunting down angels who had been trying to provoke Lucifer into releasing the horsemen.  Paimon didn’t know what he thought about the horsemen, Lucifer had said that he wasn’t going to set them free, but the archdemon wasn’t so sure if that was the best course of action.  Death was a natural thing, and keeping him contained wherever he was really couldn’t be that smart.  Plus, quite a few of the humans really sucked enough to deserve it.  Oh well, he’d talk to Lucifer later about it. 

He stopped suddenly in his silent creep forwards, cocking his head to listen.  Another clang sounded and yes, that was definitely the sound of a battle.  Moving quicker now, he peaked into a large empty auditorium like room and grinned slightly at the scene in front of him.  There were five angels fighting against one, one more angel dead on the ground.  Impressed, he watched the one angel for a second, following its quick fighting techniques as it faced a greater amount of foes.  It wasn’t doing too well though and would be killed soon if it didn’t give in to its many wounds pouring out bright white light first.  Hold up, Paimon thought, freezing and staring at the angels vessel.  It was male, dark haired and wearing a tan coat, what had Lucifer said his human self had always thought about Castiel?  Pretty bad-ass for a nerdy guy in a trench coat.  Shit.  This was Castiel, and he was not going to last long.

Pulling back and racing over to his legion legate, he spoke quickly and quietly, leaning in close and resting his hand on the demons shoulder, ordering his commands to be passed throughout the whole group.  “There are six angels in there, one of them is wearing a male vessel with a tan trench coat and fighting the others.  That one is Castiel, he is to be captured, and though he will fight back, he isn’t to be harmed.”

The demon nodded, and a muffled murmur ran quickly through the assembled demons, each one passing the message to the next.  Using quick hand motions directed to each tribune, he ordered the different flanks to surround the area and send in half each to attack immediately.  Nodding at his legate, he turned and the demons followed him like a wave of black smoke, bursting into the large room and sending the angels into chaos, trying to pay attention to each other and the unexpected demons.  Paimon reached Castiel first and threw him to the ground, ignoring the enemy angels and ducking quickly to avoid being smote.  Castiel swung upwards with his sword and managed to catch Paimon on the arm, the angel blade burning and making him draw back slightly with a hiss.  Four more demons jumped Castiel from behind and he lashed out, catching and killing one and attempting to go at the next one. 

“Immobilize him” Paimon barked, his commands instantly being followed, even to the deaths of two more demons before they got Castiel on the ground.  Pushing the angels head to the side and ignoring the look of hatred on his face and the deadly but weakened struggles, Paimon pulled out a thin knife he had in pocket, perfect for carving delicately into flesh.  Stabbing it into the angel’s neck, he cut quick lines of a sigil he had memorized during the first time he had to fight angels and they would capture them for playthings.  Though Lucifer said that didn’t want angels tortured or killed unless they had to be, Paimon had made sure to renew his memory of the sigil that he now used once again to carve into Castiel’s neck.  As the sigil grew nearer to being completed, Castiel’s struggled increased and one of the demons holding him down slammed Castiel own blade through his arm, pinning it to the floor.  A burst of anger at the demon flared in Paimon as the angel cried out in pain, and only knowing that Lucifer didn’t want hell to know exactly who Castiel was to him yet stopped Paimon from killing the demon instantly.

 A couple more twists and the sigil was complete, all angelic strength gone from Castiel and the light in his eyes and at his hands disappearing, though the white slipping from his wounds continued to bleed.  The other demons holding the angel backed off, and Paimon quickly grabbed Castiel’s arm when it looked like he would simply tear it off the blade to try and get away.  Glancing up to make sure they were in no danger, he smugly smiled to see that the rest of the angels were gone, either forced to leave their vessel due to mutilation or abandoning the fight.  He knew other legates had problems with their demons abilities to follow orders, but his demons?  His demons were awesome. 

“Nice job everyone, I’ll bring the angel back, the rest of you can go.”  Paimon announced, accepting a nod from his prefect and smirking at the demons as they left, the more powerful teleporting the weaker ones with hosts and the rest disappearing out of the room. 

He turned back to the angel to assess and inwardly winced.  Castiel was pouring light everywhere and was slightly curled over the arm with the blade through it, staring up at the archdemon with a mix of fear and defiance in glazed over eyes.  So this was the angel that Lucifer was so infatuated with, Paimon could almost see why just from Castiel’s reaction to being in such an impossible situation.  Once they had gotten a while alone, Paimon had insisted Lucifer tell him in detail about the stuff that happened while he was human, and Castiel had been a pretty huge part of it, talked about with a tone of affection and awe.  Lucifer was totally gone for the guy, so he was instantly included in Paimon’s list of ‘to be protected’.  But how the hell was Paimon going to bring Castiel back to hell _and_ keep him alive?  He knew angels usually just flew, but he didn’t know how well one would react to archdemon style flight.  Forcing Castiel into the ground, a task easier than it should’ve been even with the binding sigil, Paimon yanked the angel blade out of his arm and then grabbed his neck over the sigil, threatening the angel with the blade to keep him still.  Guess they’d find out. 

 

Flying—something he hadn’t even been able to do for centuries—while dragging an angel into hell was terrible, and really not something Paimon would recommend.  Castiel struggled even with his grace completely confined, pushing at him in something the archdemon knew to be terror, though he had very rarely known an angel to be scared.  Though, Paimon supposed, if he were a powerless angel getting dragged into hell by an archdemon, he’d be pretty worried too.  

“Stop fighting me” Paimon hissed at Castiel, maneuvering the angel blade out of reach.  This guy was really persistent even when half-dead. 

Castiel merely replied with another twist, trying to lunge to get at the blade but sagging in his arms instead.  Grimacing, Paimon landed near Lucifer’s room, in the empty corridor before it.  He let go of Castiel only to have to grab him again as the angel sunk to the floor, his eyes fluttering shut before being forced open again.  Damn it, he would not get the angel all the way here just to have him die on him, Lucifer loved him, so Paimon wouldn’t let him die.  Simple as that.

“Lucifer!”  He bellowed, pulling Castiel up and staggering with his dead weight towards the archangels room “Lucifer!”

There was no reply or movement from the room, and Paimon had to drag Castiel into it.  Finding it empty, he dropped the angel on motel bed, praying to get Lucifer’s attention.  _‘Lucifer, get the fuck down here, I got your angel and he’s really not doing well.’_   There was that small black warp in reality that signaled the devils flight through hell and then Lucifer was there, swearing at the sight of Castiel

 

~*~

 

“Fuck, Cas!” Lucifer swore, running forwards and dropping his knees before the unconscious angel.  Paimon moved to the other side but Lucifer barely noticed him, frantically cataloging Cas’ injuries.  The worst were a large gash through Cas’ chest and hole in his arm, both pouring white light and gorged deep into his true form which was steadily growing dimmer as his grace prepared to go supernova and die.  Placing his hand on Cas’ forehead, he began to pour grace into the angel, keeping him alive as he knit up his true form and vessel, a healing that was much more complicated than that of just a human or demon.  Focusing on the gouge in his chest first, Lucifer started to pull together the light and the skin of Cas’ vessel, sending his own grace deep inside Cas through his hand and letting it settle there to replace the grace Cas had lost.  After about a minute he finished healing the first cut, leaving a small scar and moving onto his arm. As he started healing that Cas moved slightly  

Paimon moved up again and held Cas’ limbs down as the angel immediately tried to struggle.  Lucifer was confused for a second at the weakness of it, but then noticed the sigil carved into the angel’s neck, oh, of course.

“What are you doing?”  Cas whispered, stilling and tensing when he saw that Lucifer was healing him. 

“I’m healing you.  What the hell happened?” Lucifer asked as the hole in Cas’ arm healed leaving nothing but a small crystal shaped scar on either side. 

A lot of pain crossed Cas’ face and he spat angrily at Lucifer, “Stop pretending you’re Dean Winchester, I know that you aren’t and I’m not going to help you.  You should let me die.”

“Cas, I’ve been Dean Winchester since he was born and Lucifer before that” Lucifer started after he finished healing Cas’ wounds, moving back a little and indicating that Paimon could let the angel go too. “The child that would’ve been Dean Winchester was stillborn, so I filled the empty vessel with my grace and cut it off.  I didn’t know I was Lucifer until a little bit after the rest of me was let out of the cage and I healed myself.  And I’m not continuing the angel’s apocalypse, I’m on your side”

Cas pushed himself up against the beds headboard, glancing once at Paimon before focusing on Lucifer with a suspicious glare.  “You are the Prince of Lies, don’t expect me to believe that.  You would never change your mind so easy.”

“Fuck man, easy?  My human life was so not easy.  Listen, I found a crack in the cage, sent my grace through and then let the cage snap shut over it, cutting it off and letting that piece become my soul as Dean.”  Lucifer explained, expanding for a minute or two more before the disbelieving expression on Cas’ face made him desperate and he changed tact.  “If I heal the sigil on your neck, will you promise to stay here?  I don’t want you to get yourself hurt by trying to fly out, and I will let you go, but I want you to look at my grace”

“You won’t let me go brother.  Just because I was young when you fell doesn’t mean I don’t know what you are like.  Stop your pretending and tell me what you want” Cas hissed, flinching and trying to bat away Lucifer’s hand as the archangel grew exasperated, slapping his hand on the sigil carved into Cas’ neck and healing it, releasing the smaller angels grace 

“Please just look at my grace Cas!”  Lucifer begged, knowing that he needed to convince Cas of the truth now unless he wanted to have to work through a hundred problems with him in the future “It’s the same as Deans soul, I am Lucifer and Dean”

Cas frowned but finally complied, looking through Lucifer’s vessel and into his grace. Cas’ eyes widened in amazement at the sight of it and he withdrew, looking still wary but now more confused.  Lucifer let out a sigh of relief, there was undeniable proof that Cas wouldn’t just let go.  Which meant that he could now let Cas go and digest this new information.  Hopefully he would come back.

“Why would you become human?  And why have him save me?”  Cas asked, his voice uncertain as he glanced once more at Paimon,

“I wanted to mess with the angels plan.  It kind of backfired on me just as much as I caused it to backfire on them, what with me living as a human and getting all the lovely emotions and memories that came with it.  They won’t get their apocalypse now, and even though it’s kind of messed up, that is a better outcome overall” Lucifer rationalized, then answered Cas’ second question, surprised he would even ask it  “And of course I’m not going to let you die, you’re family Cas, I shouldn’t have even let you die the first time”

“I need to think about this” Cas said slowly, looking lost and almost as if he expected Lucifer to yell ‘ _Just kidding!’_ and start torturing him

“I get it.  I’ll take you back to Bobby’s” Lucifer said, turning to Paimon and wrinkling his nose at the gleeful expression on his face.  Oh fuck, this was going to give him so much mocking material.  “Don’t you dare say what I know you’re thinking, and I need you to stay here until I get back.”

Paimon snorted “Fucking archangel, of course I don’t get a thanks for saving your angels life”

Rolling his eyes as Paimon stood up and moved closer to him, Lucifer acquiesced to his unspoken request and hugged the tactile archdemon, drawling in a mocking tone “Thank you my dearest Paimon.”

The archdemon laughed, punching him in the shoulder and then quickly backing up “Well leave then and hurry it up, wouldn’t want me to get bored”

Paimon threw him a wink and Lucifer shook his head, turning back to Cas who looked upset, his head tilted slightly and eyes narrowed at Paimon.  Ignoring this, Lucifer grabbed Cas’ shoulder and spread his wings, shifting hell around them to leave it and appear on Earth in front of Bobby’s house.

Before Cas could speak Lucifer reasserted, “I don’t want the apocalypse, I really like the earth and I’d love if you could join with me to stop it from ending.  I know you’re already doing that, but I could help you and you could help me with changes in hell and stuff.  Like you said, just think about it, kay Cas?”

“I will” Cas looked considering, his vessel hiding him well even though Lucifer could see his grace churning from all the different information thrown at him in the past hour.  He paused, then added, “Thank you Lucifer”

Lucifer grinned, “And hey man, if you need help or just want to talk, pray to me and I’ll be right there”

Cas nodded and they fell immediately back into their normal staring, something that as Dean he had always secretly enjoyed, feeling like he could lose himself in wordless conversation and the knowledge that Cas was still there, it seemed he still loved it as Lucifer.  He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but at a noise from within the house he tore his eyes away. 

“I don’t know what you’ll decide, but can you tell Sam what I told you about me being Dean?”  Lucifer asked hesitantly, looking at the ground before flicking his eyes up to Cas’.  The angel looking understanding at this and to Lucifer’s relief he nodded softly.  The archangel broke out into a grin and reached out to touch his hand briefly to the side of Cas’ face “Thanks Cas.  Later man”

Lucifer spread his wings to go back to hell, letting himself fall back into the temperature paradox that only existed within his kingdom.  As he was disappearing he heard Cas speak once more, the words sounding foreign coming from the angel and spoken almost too softly for him to hear.

“Later Dean.”


	5. Everyone Needs a Fancy Camel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer and Paimon deal with the aftermath of bringing Cas to Hell, serious and immature conversations ensue. This is cut short when Crowley pages Lucifer to reluctantly sort through souls in Hell because of crossroad contracts. Thoughts on Death and a certain little sibling follows.

Appearing again in his room, Lucifer cast his gaze around for Paimon, whom he quickly found sitting with his back up against the headboard on the bed Cas had recently vacated.

“Hello Lucifer” Paimon said, cracking an eye open and then scooting over, patting the bed for Lucifer to sit down on.  A smirk crossed his face “So everything will be alright with your precious little angel?”

“Shut up” Lucifer glared, resisting sitting down until Paimon brought out the puppy dog face, a look that worked really well on his more feminine features.   Relenting, Lucifer sat down, Paimon instantly pressing up against him and presenting his shoulder for Lucifer to lean on.  He rested his head on the offered shoulder and flicked his eyes up to look at Paimon’s face before he answered “Ya, he’ll be okay, and I think he’ll even come ‘round.  Hopefully I managed to convince him that I’m still Dean.  Anyways, what the hell happened to him and how’d you find him?”

Paimon grimaced, “I brought a legion out to chase some angels, and found him already fighting them.  Gotta say though Luce, you pick ‘em well.  Castiel is probably the most insane angel out there, he was holding his own against five angels and had already killed one.  Anyhow, I recognized him but wasn’t sure how long he would last, so I just sent the whole legion in, we restrained him and sent the others angels packing.  He kept on fighting me till he passed out, then again, I always thought that the ones with lots of stamina would be your type”

Paimon laughed at his last comment and Lucifer punched him in the side, a hard feat to perform while also leaning on his shoulder, then when that didn’t work out he choose to ignore it “We all have to be a little insane, it’s the only way to live.  And I told you he was a badass little dude with wings.  I remember he went through Zachariah’s lackeys like butter and tried to go up against Alastair even though he was still affected from hell and the bastard was a pretty strong archdemon.  Everyone’s gunning for him, but he’ll make it.” He paused, frowning and upset about the fact that Cas would have to.  “Still, fucking angels going after him.   I have to figure out how to get them to understand that no one is allowed to touch him

Lucifer felt Paimon nodding slowly and paused again “You have an idea?”

“Well come on now, I would’ve thought you’d already guessed” Paimon joked, then went serious “Dude.  You’re _the_ King of Hell, you aren’t a human anymore.  You know how to make an angel beg and bleed, how to send a message.  You can either wait for the next attack on him, or go find the angels that he fought with this time.  But either way, have a little fun and leave a brutal warning.”

Lucifer stilled, thinking.  Paimon was right.  Lucifer knew how to torture, how to send a message that couldn’t be ignored.  Once again his angelic and human self warred with each other though, something they hadn’t done for the past weeks in hell.  The only difference was that they both were possessively agreeing with the ends, just disagreeing on the means.  His old angelic self, now woken, wanted to completely tear apart the angels who had almost killed Castiel, to force them to stay inside their vessels, string them up on racks and stripe careful breaks through every bone in their wings as a start.  His human self argued against this, saying he should wait until he knew the angels were the ones to attack Cas, should let these ones go, but lay waste to anyone else who touched his friend. 

Damn it, times like this it was so hard to decide which to listen to.  He could always ask Cas what had happened, but then he’d have to figure out a way to not let him know why Lucifer wanted to know.  Cas still felt bad for killing his brothers, and wouldn’t take kindly to Lucifer maiming them if he found out.  So he’d have to wait, Lucifer finally decided.  He’d keep an eye on Cas, and then if anyone else attacked him, Lucifer could pay them back most kindly in all his torturous glory.

Relaying his decision in slightly different terms to Paimon, the archdemon grinned, evidently pleased, even if he mock complained about Lucifer getting soft.  Then again, he was compared to the way the devil had been before.  But Lucifer was still unstable right now from what had just almost happened, and now he couldn’t not dwell on it.

“You’ll still be here though, right?  Even though I’m changing everything to be more humane?”  Lucifer asked quietly, staring determinedly at the bed.   Fucking abandonment issues just wouldn’t let go.  Them and the reasoning behind them were things he could’ve happily lived without now that he was an archangel again.  But no, couldn’t catch a break.

“Oh fuck no, I’m leaving right away.”  Paimon laughed, but then halted as he noticed the tension in Lucifer.  He could feel Paimon moving to try and meet Lucifer’s eyes, but continued to look away, embarrassed.  “Hey, don’t worry Luce, I’m not going anywhere, doesn’t matter what happens, I promise I’ll be there.”

“Alright” Lucifer replied, curling in on himself slightly.  Damn it, why’d have to bring that up.

“No really, tell me what this is about” Paimon prodded, sounding genuinely concerned

 “It’s unimportant.  Just, as a human everyone left me.  It’s part of why I realized I might not be right about the whole anger thing.  If everyone leaves you, you’re doing something majorly wrong.” Lucifer bit his lip and fidgeted as Paimon wrapped his arm around the archangel and squeezed slightly.  He basked in the comfort for a moment before straightening “And while we’re on the subject, can we change the subject now before either of us manages to turn this into even more of a chick flick moment than it already is?” 

Paimon laughed at this and removed his arm, leaning back and then shuffling around to recline.  “Lucy, in some mythologies on earth I _am_ a chick.  I mean, all I’m missing here is my dromedary.  You take a female vessel and we can braid each other’s hair and paint nails all day.”

“Fuck off man! I like this vessel, and don’t ever call me that” Lucifer protested, crossing his arms.  “Anyways, where are you getting all this modern speech?  I’m almost a hundred percent sure Cas has spent more time on earth in the past ten years than you have, and he wouldn’t know a pop culture reference if it wore bright green and smacked him over the head.”

“Yes, but I spent all my time on Earth having fun with people.  Plus, I’m completely demon, not an angel anymore, so right there I’m automatically more adaptable, _Lucy_.”  Paimon teased and jumped away slightly, laughing as Lucifer jabbed him for the nickname

“You know what, I’m going to give you your own bad nickname.  Cause while I can deal with Luce, I will not let Lucy pass me by without retribution.  _Camel_.”  Lucifer hissed, the only thing he could think of coming out and admittedly not being as annoying as he wanted it to be.

“Camel!”  Paimon cried out in mock outrage.  He did do quite a lot of mocking these days, now that he knew he wouldn’t be smote “It’s a dromedary Lucifer.  Someone of your high standing should know such a thing.  They are _completely_ different.  A dromedary has one hump, and is far more regal”

“Everything is regal when it’s slow” Lucifer quipped before rolling off the bed as Paimon lunged for him.  Lucifer hit the ground laughing and flew to the other side of the room, well out of the archdemons reach and almost in tears from laughter.  It really wasn’t as funny as he was making it out to be, but Lucifer was still riding an adrenalin high from almost losing Cas, and everything was funnier when not in a perfect mindset.  Paimon stared at Lucifer angrily for a few more seconds before he too burst out laughing and they stood and sat there, giggling uncontrollably.  Oh Father, if anyone could see them now.  Highest kings of hell, busting a gut over fancy camels. 

Finally Lucifer managed to get himself under control, feeling lighter than he had in months.  “Alright, that’s it.  We are so getting stoned one of these days.  Shitty idea, but it’ll be awesome.”

Paimon nodded, but before he could say anything about it a role of parchment appeared on Lucifer’s desk and he groaned.  Crap, all the stuff going on and he had completely forgotten about the crossroads meeting he had been in when Paimon called him. 

“What is it?”  Paimon asked interestedly, leaning forwards slightly.

Lucifer walked over, picked up the paper and read it over quickly.  The crossroad king Crowley wanted to speak with Lucifer at his earliest convenience and he hoped the emergency that had called him away wasn’t too dire.  That was the demons way of picking for information, trying to find out what was happening without actually asking.  Lucifer liked Crowley, as much as one could like someone they knew would betray them as soon as it was better for themselves.  He was intelligent though, and due to Lucifer’s manipulations, he was more beneficial to Crowley alive and king of hell than dead.  Since Lilith was dead, he had been given charge of the crossroads and was in the inner circle of demons that Lucifer kept close and gave more information.  He didn’t really trust any of the demons in his inner circle though, Paimon was the only demon he trusted, and Paimon had been an angel once, a long time ago. 

During the crossroads meeting, Lucifer had asked Crowley to round up all the souls in hell who were there because of deals, demonized or not.  He would have to go through them at some point, sooner rather than later. 

“The crossroads meeting I recently flew out of.  Do you have any idea any idea how many people are in Hell because of demon deals?  I mean, two arrived in the past month since I got here, and that’s only about two and a half days up on earth.  I don’t know what for yet, but that’s tons.”  Lucifer said, writing a quick reply with his grace, sending it and turning back to the archdemon “I have to go, leaving with no notice isn’t a good way to keep allies.”

“Sucks, but go right ahead.  I’m positive I’ll be having more fun than you.” Paimon agreed, grinning. 

Lucifer rolled his eyes and made to leave, but then stopped, turning back “Speaking of you having more fun than me, can you check up on Cas and my human brother every once in a while?”

“Yup, don’t worry ‘bout it.”  Paimon said, but just because he really wasn’t in a serious mood added, “I’ll keep yellow notepads full of information on their every habit.  I’ll inform you of every little thing they do, before they’ve even realized they’re going to do it.”

Flipping Paimon the bird, Lucifer disappeared, cleaning Cas’ vessels blood off his hands and reappearing back in the meeting room he had left.  Crowley didn’t appear surprised at his entrance, but there was a red eye that jumped and attempted to be subtly invisible as it slunk away.  Crowley looked irritated with the demon, but smoothed his face out as he met Lucifer’s gaze

“Ah, yes.  So do you want to see the souls now?  We finished rounding them up while you were gone” He said, businesslike and official.  Impressed at the efficiency, Lucifer agreed and let Crowley lead him down further into hell.  They finally got to a large auditorium like room, filled with souls in all different states of demonization.  Lucifer tried to not let it show, but he was surprised at the sheer number.  There had to be at least three hundred in the room.  It was going to days to sort through them all, he’d probably have to get some help. 

“This is the first room of four” Crowley stated, smirking as Lucifer inwardly groaned.  Fuck days, this was going to take years. 

 

~*~

 

Lucifer managed to make it two days without a long break, going through tons of different souls, combing them out into three different categories.  Those who were to be sent up into heaven, those who needed to do more of some kind of pertinence for their lives before going to heaven, and those who would stay in hell.  He hadn’t met anyone he knew yet, and had been startled to realize that he never actually understood how many different things people were willing to go to hell for.  He had gone to Hell for his brother’s life, but he knew that some people had gone there for lesser reasons.  He had just never truly understood how stupid some people were. 

There were so many souls who had made demon deals for money, power, lust, a couple years of good fortune, to be better than everyone else or other superficial reasons.  Things that would never be worth an eternity in hell.  But then there were also the good souls to restore his faith in humanity whenever it slipped, the parents who had given their lives for the health of a failing child, and the children who had given everything to make their family happy, others who paralleled Lucifer’s own deal. 

It was completely exhausting, feeling like your heart was going to spilt in two sometimes, and then being furious, wanting nothing more than to grab a soul, throw it down on a rack and start carving.  Crowley had left early on, but Lucifer had continued, sorting and talking with the hundreds of doomed souls, trying to make a difference where one should be made.  And there had been quite a lot to change.  He’d cordoned off a bunch of souls to send to heaven, and moved more to a new section of hell that was like community service. 

He’d been thinking for quite a long time on how to get the souls to heaven, and finally narrowed it down to Option A of releasing Death.  Death may be a horseman, but he was neutral just like his reapers.  He was natural like none of the other horsemen were, and if Death rose, Lucifer could discus with him how to proceed with moving souls.  He had no illusions that Death would be easy to talk to, from what he knew of the horseman Death acted above everyone else, and with good reason.  The guy was immensely powerful, and the keeper of balance.  Natural order.  This, Lucifer found quite funny, as himself, Cas and Sam had been screwing with natural order for so long, being resurrected and moving around the different planes of existence like it was perfectly normal. 

Lucifer would have to talk with beings he could trust first, ask them about the plan.  Unfortunately, since becoming Lucifer that list had become even smaller than it was before.  Paimon and Cas.  Sam accurately thought he was the devil and Bobby would too, so he really didn’t have anyone to discuss something like this with.  Paimon would be all over it, and Cas would be against it.  Damn it, he really needed to find someone who didn’t know he was Lucifer, or wasn’t on a side in this war.

He paused suddenly, on the edge of realization from a memory.  He hadn’t been up to heaven in what felt like forever, but during the past month spent in hell he had hidden himself and opened up to the song of the host, just to hear it again.  He had listened for quite a while, but hadn’t heard one voice that should have been there.  Quickly flying to his room and making sure it was empty, Lucifer hid himself, weaving his grace tightly until he was the brightness of a human, a draining feat when one was accurately called The Morning Star.  Once he was sure no one would be able to sense him amongst the glory of the archangels, he slowly pulled open his connection to the Host, bypassing the many wards forgotten and rotting there to keep him out. 

Ah, how beautiful, it sounded like a true home.  Something he had never been able to let go of.  Nevertheless, back to identifying.  There was Michael, oh, and Raphael… Hanael, Kepharel.  He counted the names off, continuing to listen and identify archangels.  After he had listened for about an hour, he was sure he was right.  There was one voice missing that had no reason to be gone.  A grin spread across his face.  If he was correct, and he was sure he was, this could go very well for him indeed. 

The crossroad souls would have to wait.  Lucifer had a little brother of his to find.

 

 

Extra Wings and Possessive Things

Flying around, Lucifer searched for signs of his missing brother, getting a pretty good estimate on his location before pulling up to land on earth, debating on going to Bobby's and picking up the impala.  They probably had wards up against letting him in, but he might be able to use his grace to drive his baby out.  He was very good at slipping his grace through cracks that shouldn't be there, he had been forced to learn patience in his cage.  Deciding on this course of action, he took flight again, landing slightly outside the wards and looking in, glad that it was still light out. Actually, scratch that, it had just become light out, still morning. 

Moving around until he had a clear view of his baby, Lucifer sat down and released a little bit of grace, setting up a small casing of trips three meters wide to all sides of him. If anything moved in that range his grace would break free from his confinements and he'd instantly be transported a distance away.  Satisfied, he turned back to the impala and let more of his grace free, smoothing it over the sides of the wards, and pulling air towards him. Wherever the air actually responded there'd be a crack.  And yup, there one was.  By focusing all his grace on the spot, he was able to see a small place where the wards warped around a miniscule bubble in the sigil, a dead bug he assumed that had been painted over and then fallen off.

Pressing and testing it, Lucifer finally managed to get some of his grace through, pushing multiple thin filaments in and spreading them out, thankful for the years he had spent trying this in his cage. He moved them further out and touched the impala, easily latching onto it, grateful it was turned towards him, he didn't think he could push his grace any further.  Once there, it only took a small pull of grace to roll it towards him.

"What are you doing?" Cas’ voice sounded suddenly from behind him and he swore, jumping and letting go of the impala as he whipped around and the crack snapped shut.  Cas was standing about four meters from him, examining his grace trips with an intrigued look on his face.

"Trying to get my baby back." Lucifer answered, releasing the trips and then looking mournfully back at the impala as it continued to roll slowly towards him, wondering if he stared at it enough whether or not it would magically do his bidding and speed up.  He waited, tense for a few seconds before finally, thankfully, its front made it out and Lucifer was able to pull it the rest of the way.

"Ha! It worked!” He crowed, standing and striding over to his baby, grinning as he ran a hand over the top. "Oh, and have you made a decision about me yet?  Cause you could totally join me"

Cas tilted his head at Lucifer, his face impassive and for a second he thought that the younger angel would say no, or forbid him from ever returning, but then he answered and Lucifer breathed a sigh of relief  "I believe you, though neither Sam nor Bobby do.  Your grace looks like Dean Winchesters soul, and you had your archdemon save my life and let me go.  I will trust you for now, but if I find that it is misplaced, and you have somehow taken over Dean, nothing in hell with stop me from doing my hardest to kill you"

Lucifer grinned fondly at his last comment.  There was the insane badass Paimon had commented on, threatening the king of hell.  "And I promise I will never give you a reason to withdraw your trust.  Thanks Cas"

Cas nodded slightly, the angelic version of a smile slightly curving Cas’ lips.  Glancing at the impala, Cas asked "Where are you going?"

"Ah, yes." Lucifer responded, opening the door to get in and closing off his grace again as he answered, “I'm off to find a little brother who might help us. You should come with"

As he closed the door there was the sound of flapping wings and Lucifer tensed before realizing Cas had just appeared in the passenger’s seat.  Lucifer states at him, flabbergasted, but Cas looked completely nonchalant as he asked "Why are you hiding your grace?"

"Did you really just fly into the car? Seriously man, you're going to get flabby." Lucifer shook his head and laughed as he realized Cas was still grinning.  Damn angel was playing with him.  Looking away and turning the car back on with his grace, he answered. "'Cause heaven doesn't know I'm Dean. They think I'm still without a vessel, though they might have noticed Dean and Zachariah are missing. With any luck our missing brother won't know either"

"Zachariah?" Cas asked, frowning as they pulled away, and Lucifer realized that the younger angel didn't know yet.

"Ya, to put myself back together I needed all the grace of an angel and, other than you, the only angel I was ever alone with was him.  The process killed him" Lucifer explained "Do you remember when I told you to never change? I was leeching his grace then, and just after that I became Lucifer"

"You became Lucifer just before meeting up with Sam" Cas stated somewhat disapprovingly, then abruptly changed the topic "Which brother are we finding?"

Lucifer grinned, speeding up as he pulled out onto the highway "I'll give you a couple hints. He left heaven a _long_ time ago.  He was always slightly mischievous, he's an archangel and, from my incredible deductive abilities, I have determined that he is hiding on earth, most likely taking the form of a trickster, due to his penchant for bringing justice.  Now I know you never interacted with the archangels, but you should get that"

Cas looked pensive for a few seconds, before understanding dawned and Lucifer knew he had gotten it. "Gabriel."

"And bingo was his name-o" Lucifer sang out in agreement

"There isn't an archangel named Bingo. Gabriel is closest to your hints" Cas said, frowning and looking slightly concerned, as if he thought Lucifer had lost his mind. Right, socially maladjusted angel here

"It's a kid’s song, don't worry about it.  Yes.  Gabriel" Lucifer confirmed, amused at Cas’ confusion "I looked around before arriving here and I found a couple signatures that look like tricksters.  Narrowed it down and there is one a couple states over that I'm almost positive is him."

"Why bring the impala?" Cas asked, running his hand over the dashboard.

"Cause he's more likely to answer positively to Dean than Lucifer.  And most everyone knows you travel with us, so you'll be fine as you are" Lucifer spread his wings and flew, landing with the impala and Cas on a stretch of road about 80 miles from the town the trickster was in.  So maybe he also just wanted to drive.  

Cas let out a huff of exasperation and Lucifer grinned, turning on the radio and cranking it up as Led Zeppelin sounded through the speakers.  He was so glad he had become Dean Winchester, as the archangel he had been before he would’ve missed out on so much, and never even known.

 

~*~

 

Pulling over onto a small unmarked road a few miles from the town, Lucifer drove away ‘til they were inside a grove of trees a little way off from the road, completely hidden from the highway.  Lucifer glanced around to make sure there was no line of sight towards them and then turned to Cas, answering the questioning look thrown his way. "When we get into town we’ll go to a diner, eat, be loud and make sure he knows we're here. I'm pretty sure Gabriel's the Trickster me and Sam met at the Mystery Spot, so he'll probably want to fuck with us more even if he doesn't recognize me as the human supposed to be Michaels vessel.  But first we need to make sure he's knows we're coming and to do something with you."

"I can spread my grace out and look for Trickster signs so we know exactly where to go" Cas offered, misunderstanding, but Lucifer grabbed his arm before he could do anything.

“Wait one sec, there’s something I’ve been meaning to do first.  Come on.”  Lucifer said, releasing Cas and then getting out of the car, Cas following him away from the car and over to a fallen tree, Lucifer motioning for Cas to sit on it and then crouching directly in front of him

“What is it?”  Cas asked, tilting his head to the side and waiting, his eyes slightly narrowed. 

"Gabriel's an archangel, and we aren't exactly known for being too forgiving to other angels or humans. He will almost definitely try and attack you ‘cause he’ll see you as an annoyance in his way.  Therefore, this is what we're going to do," Lucifer explained, opening the trench coat and Cas’ suit jacket, unbuttoning his shirt underneath that and determinedly ignoring the fact that he was partially stripping the younger angel.  He held on tightly to Cas’ arm with one hand and rested the other on Cas’ chest, directly above his vessels heart. 

Damn it, now was really not the time to be admiring the lean planes of Cas’ body or focusing on the feel of smooth skin under Lucifer’s hand.  To draw his mind away from that, Lucifer once again opened up his grace, reflecting on how useless it was to be constantly hiding and releasing it.  Quickly he burned a bunch of mirroring sigils into the ground, making sure to include the impala.  Anyone looking at the area inside, supernatural or not, would have their gaze slide away and simply wouldn’t process anything happening out of the ordinary.  

"What are you doing?" Cas asked curiously, but made no move to push him away, a non-action that screamed trust in the archangel, something Lucifer was hugely thankful for.  They might actually be able to go back to the profound bond closeness they had had when he was just Dean, he thought hopefully

"I'm giving you an upgrade with some of my grace.  Before when I did this it was only for healing, so it didn't boost you any, just stayed until your own grace could sustain itself" Lucifer muttered distantly, not really paying attention to his words as he started to push grace into Castiel. 

Cas let out a soft gasp at the first contact and his eyes started to glow, but Lucifer ignored it, filling Cas with his grace, running it through Cas’ wings and causing the feathers to shift back into complete order and health.  Cas’ hand dug into Lucifer’s knee, panting as he was filled past the brim and his true form started to shine brighter than it had before, being filled with the light bringers grace.  Lucifer met Cas’ gaze, trying to offer comfort through his gaze as Cas’ eyes filled with wonder. 

Now was the hard part, this would hurt.  Lucifer's hand sank into Cas’ vessel and he let his grace free inside Cas, wincing in sympathy as Cas’ true voice broke free in a pained scream.  Before he had only been moving his grace inside Cas’, but doing this was letting it have free reign.  Unfortunately, this was used as also a form of torture by more powerful angels.  It was something he himself had done before, forced his grace into another angel and then torn them apart from the inside, a completely violating way to break an angel.  He winced as Cas’ hands dug deeper into his leg, the younger angel leaning into him even with the pain. 

Lucifer continued to let more of his grace into Cas, but now started molding with it, focusing on Cas’ grace and integrating the two, changing Cas into a seraph and adding more wings and faces to his true form.  He topped off the flow of grace and released the newly created extra wings, letting them explode from Cas’ vessel’s back and stretch to their full length.  Light exploded from Cas as Lucifer cut off his grace, snapping it off and leaving it to incorporate itself with Cas’ grace, making him a seraph, only one step lower than an archangel.  Before fully leaving, Lucifer did his best to calm the grace he had put in Cas, freeing it to fully become a part of the younger angel.

He pulled his hand out of Cas’ chest and Cas, exhausted, let his head fall forward on Lucifer’s shoulder.  Lucifer made soft soothing noises and maneuvered Cas onto Lucifer’s lap so he could rub soothingly down Cas’ back, running his hands along Cas’ new wings to help him figure out where they were and locate the new muscles.  The whole process had taken a couple of hours, and now Lucifer let Cas adjust, his hands with a death grip on Lucifer’s leather jacket as he panted heavily into his shoulder.  Lucifer moved his own wings back slightly so they wouldn’t touch the younger angel, a gesture he wasn’t sure would be welcomed.  He himself wasn't doing so well either, it had been so long since he promoted an angel, last being he had changed was Paimon, and he was a demon.  They sat there, resting as the sun rising to its highest point and then moving on, both of them recuperating in silence.  It was about another hour before Cas finally moved, wrapping his legs around Lucifer’s waist and still tightly gripping his jacket, Cas turned his head to gaze at his new appendages, stretching them out in awe.  Reaching a hand forwards and curling the new wings inwards, Cas touched them softly.  As he leaned back Lucifer noticed that his handprint had been burned into Cas’ chest, matching the one the younger angel left on Lucifer’s shoulder.  Well that was unexpected, though not entirely unwanted.  Now everyone would know Cas belonged to him, Lucifer thought possessively before he could catch himself.  Deciding to follow the easiest route and ignore his strong desire to mark up and possess the younger angel, he looked away.

"There" Lucifer murmured contentedly, his voice slightly scratchy and his grace shivering from being cut apart. It was different than when he became Dean, this time his grace was completely integrated into Cas’ grace, forgetting its old owner and being claimed by a new one. "Now you’ll be safer."

"Wow" Cas breathed, continuing to stare at himself before turning back to Lucifer and wrapping his wings around the archangel, hiding the handprint as he once more rested on his lap, having fully left the log long ago. "Thank you Lucifer"

Lucifer hadn't really thought about the position he had moved Cas into, but now with the younger angel shifting to completely wrap around him, he had to remind his libido that now was _really_ not a good time. He was glad he was so worn out from cutting off part of his grace, cause it's be really hard to explain a boner right now.

"It needed to be done.”  Lucifer replied, his voice slightly strained “Besides, it'll protect you from any demons who come by chasing off angels. You'll feel like me to them, so they'll leave you alone."

Cas hummed in reply, settling down further and Lucifer squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the least sexy things he could think of, Uriel's face, Bobby naked, the inside of his cage.  Eww, gross success.

"Maybe we should get a motel tonight, sleep and get Gabriel tomorrow?" Lucifer suggested, patting Cas’ back.  Cas made a short sound of agreement and Lucifer heaved himself and Cas up, stumbling a bit before straightening "Dude, you're heavy"

"I am fully content to sleep here" Cas grumbled and squirmed closer to Lucifer like he was trying to merge with him, being absolutely adorable, though Lucifer totally didn’t just think that.   Lucifer let out a short bark of amusement and stumbled over to the impala, leaning back on it and flying them to the nearest motel, a shabby one just inside the town.  Ignoring Cas’ protests, he pried him off and set him down on the impala, assuring him that Lucifer was just going to get a room, and would be back shortly.  Yawning heavily and trying to make shortly become an infinitesimal amount of time, he raced through the process of buying a room, grabbed Cas, who had now straightened out slightly, and half walked him, half carried him into the room. There were only two beds, but Cas completely avoided that problem by collapsing on it and trying to pull Lucifer down with him. Who knew the angel would be so cuddly?

“You know, angels don’t have to sleep” Lucifer teased, steering clear of Cas’ grabby hands until he had pulled both their shoes off, hauled the covers away and rolled Cas under them, only then giving in and joining him.  As soon as his back touch the bed Cas reattached himself to Lucifer and, very promptly defying Lucifer’s statement, fell asleep.  



	6. Extra Wings and Possessive Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer meets up with Castiel and they make a stop on the way to find a missing brother. Things that should've been done a long time ago are completed and Lucifer finds out that a tired Castiel is a cuddly Castiel.

Flying around, Lucifer searched for signs of his missing brother, getting a pretty good estimate on his location before pulling up to land on earth, debating on going to Bobby's and picking up the impala.  They probably had wards up against letting him in, but he might be able to use his grace to drive his baby out.  He was very good at slipping his grace through cracks that shouldn't be there, he had been forced to learn patience in his cage.  Deciding on this course of action, he took flight again, landing slightly outside the wards and looking in, glad that it was still light out. Actually, scratch that, it had just become light out, still morning. 

Moving around until he had a clear view of his baby, Lucifer sat down and released a little bit of grace, setting up a small casing of trips three meters wide to all sides of him. If anything moved in that range his grace would break free from his confinements and he'd instantly be transported a distance away.  Satisfied, he turned back to the impala and let more of his grace free, smoothing it over the sides of the wards, and pulling air towards him. Wherever the air actually responded there'd be a crack.  And yup, there one was.  By focusing all his grace on the spot, he was able to see a small place where the wards warped around a miniscule bubble in the sigil, a dead bug he assumed that had been painted over and then fallen off.

Pressing and testing it, Lucifer finally managed to get some of his grace through, pushing multiple thin filaments in and spreading them out, thankful for the years he had spent trying this in his cage. He moved them further out and touched the impala, easily latching onto it, grateful it was turned towards him, he didn't think he could push his grace any further.  Once there, it only took a small pull of grace to roll it towards him.

"What are you doing?" Cas’ voice sounded suddenly from behind him and he swore, jumping and letting go of the impala as he whipped around and the crack snapped shut.  Cas was standing about four meters from him, examining his grace trips with an intrigued look on his face.

"Trying to get my baby back." Lucifer answered, releasing the trips and then looking mournfully back at the impala as it continued to roll slowly towards him, wondering if he stared at it enough whether or not it would magically do his bidding and speed up.  He waited, tense for a few seconds before finally, thankfully, its front made it out and Lucifer was able to pull it the rest of the way.

"Ha! It worked!” He crowed, standing and striding over to his baby, grinning as he ran a hand over the top. "Oh, and have you made a decision about me yet?  Cause you could totally join me"

Cas tilted his head at Lucifer, his face impassive and for a second he thought that the younger angel would say no, or forbid him from ever returning, but then he answered and Lucifer breathed a sigh of relief  "I believe you, though neither Sam nor Bobby do.  Your grace looks like Dean Winchesters soul, and you had your archdemon save my life and let me go.  I will trust you for now, but if I find that it is misplaced, and you have somehow taken over Dean, nothing in hell with stop me from doing my hardest to kill you"

Lucifer grinned fondly at his last comment.  There was the insane badass Paimon had commented on, threatening the king of hell.  "And I promise I will never give you a reason to withdraw your trust.  Thanks Cas"

Cas nodded slightly, the angelic version of a smile slightly curving Cas’ lips.  Glancing at the impala, Cas asked "Where are you going?"

"Ah, yes." Lucifer responded, opening the door to get in and closing off his grace again as he answered, “I'm off to find a little brother who might help us. You should come with"

As he closed the door there was the sound of flapping wings and Lucifer tensed before realizing Cas had just appeared in the passenger’s seat.  Lucifer states at him, flabbergasted, but Cas looked completely nonchalant as he asked "Why are you hiding your grace?"

"Did you really just fly into the car? Seriously man, you're going to get flabby." Lucifer shook his head and laughed as he realized Cas was still grinning.  Damn angel was playing with him.  Looking away and turning the car back on with his grace, he answered. "'Cause heaven doesn't know I'm Dean. They think I'm still without a vessel, though they might have noticed Dean and Zachariah are missing. With any luck our missing brother won't know either"

"Zachariah?" Cas asked, frowning as they pulled away, and Lucifer realized that the younger angel didn't know yet.

"Ya, to put myself back together I needed all the grace of an angel and, other than you, the only angel I was ever alone with was him.  The process killed him" Lucifer explained "Do you remember when I told you to never change? I was leeching his grace then, and just after that I became Lucifer"

"You became Lucifer just before meeting up with Sam" Cas stated somewhat disapprovingly, then abruptly changed the topic "Which brother are we finding?"

Lucifer grinned, speeding up as he pulled out onto the highway "I'll give you a couple hints. He left heaven a _long_ time ago.  He was always slightly mischievous, he's an archangel and, from my incredible deductive abilities, I have determined that he is hiding on earth, most likely taking the form of a trickster, due to his penchant for bringing justice.  Now I know you never interacted with the archangels, but you should get that"

Cas looked pensive for a few seconds, before understanding dawned and Lucifer knew he had gotten it. "Gabriel."

"And bingo was his name-o" Lucifer sang out in agreement

"There isn't an archangel named Bingo. Gabriel is closest to your hints" Cas said, frowning and looking slightly concerned, as if he thought Lucifer had lost his mind. Right, socially maladjusted angel here

"It's a kid’s song, don't worry about it.  Yes.  Gabriel" Lucifer confirmed, amused at Cas’ confusion "I looked around before arriving here and I found a couple signatures that look like tricksters.  Narrowed it down and there is one a couple states over that I'm almost positive is him."

"Why bring the impala?" Cas asked, running his hand over the dashboard.

"Cause he's more likely to answer positively to Dean than Lucifer.  And most everyone knows you travel with us, so you'll be fine as you are" Lucifer spread his wings and flew, landing with the impala and Cas on a stretch of road about 80 miles from the town the trickster was in.  So maybe he also just wanted to drive.  

Cas let out a huff of exasperation and Lucifer grinned, turning on the radio and cranking it up as Led Zeppelin sounded through the speakers.  He was so glad he had become Dean Winchester, as the archangel he had been before he would’ve missed out on so much, and never even known.

 

~*~

 

Pulling over onto a small unmarked road a few miles from the town, Lucifer drove away ‘til they were inside a grove of trees a little way off from the road, completely hidden from the highway.  Lucifer glanced around to make sure there was no line of sight towards them and then turned to Cas, answering the questioning look thrown his way. "When we get into town we’ll go to a diner, eat, be loud and make sure he knows we're here. I'm pretty sure Gabriel's the Trickster me and Sam met at the Mystery Spot, so he'll probably want to fuck with us more even if he doesn't recognize me as the human supposed to be Michaels vessel.  But first we need to make sure he's knows we're coming and to do something with you."

"I can spread my grace out and look for Trickster signs so we know exactly where to go" Cas offered, misunderstanding, but Lucifer grabbed his arm before he could do anything.

“Wait one sec, there’s something I’ve been meaning to do first.  Come on.”  Lucifer said, releasing Cas and then getting out of the car, Cas following him away from the car and over to a fallen tree, Lucifer motioning for Cas to sit on it and then crouching directly in front of him

“What is it?”  Cas asked, tilting his head to the side and waiting, his eyes slightly narrowed. 

"Gabriel's an archangel, and we aren't exactly known for being too forgiving to other angels or humans. He will almost definitely try and attack you ‘cause he’ll see you as an annoyance in his way.  Therefore, this is what we're going to do," Lucifer explained, opening the trench coat and Cas’ suit jacket, unbuttoning his shirt underneath that and determinedly ignoring the fact that he was partially stripping the younger angel.  He held on tightly to Cas’ arm with one hand and rested the other on Cas’ chest, directly above his vessels heart. 

Damn it, now was really not the time to be admiring the lean planes of Cas’ body or focusing on the feel of smooth skin under Lucifer’s hand.  To draw his mind away from that, Lucifer once again opened up his grace, reflecting on how useless it was to be constantly hiding and releasing it.  Quickly he burned a bunch of mirroring sigils into the ground, making sure to include the impala.  Anyone looking at the area inside, supernatural or not, would have their gaze slide away and simply wouldn’t process anything happening out of the ordinary.  

"What are you doing?" Cas asked curiously, but made no move to push him away, a non-action that screamed trust in the archangel, something Lucifer was hugely thankful for.  They might actually be able to go back to the profound bond closeness they had had when he was just Dean, he thought hopefully

"I'm giving you an upgrade with some of my grace.  Before when I did this it was only for healing, so it didn't boost you any, just stayed until your own grace could sustain itself" Lucifer muttered distantly, not really paying attention to his words as he started to push grace into Castiel. 

Cas let out a soft gasp at the first contact and his eyes started to glow, but Lucifer ignored it, filling Cas with his grace, running it through Cas’ wings and causing the feathers to shift back into complete order and health.  Cas’ hand dug into Lucifer’s knee, panting as he was filled past the brim and his true form started to shine brighter than it had before, being filled with the light bringers grace.  Lucifer met Cas’ gaze, trying to offer comfort through his gaze as Cas’ eyes filled with wonder. 

Now was the hard part, this would hurt.  Lucifer's hand sank into Cas’ vessel and he let his grace free inside Cas, wincing in sympathy as Cas’ true voice broke free in a pained scream.  Before he had only been moving his grace inside Cas’, but doing this was letting it have free reign.  Unfortunately, this was used as also a form of torture by more powerful angels.  It was something he himself had done before, forced his grace into another angel and then torn them apart from the inside, a completely violating way to break an angel.  He winced as Cas’ hands dug deeper into his leg, the younger angel leaning into him even with the pain. 

Lucifer continued to let more of his grace into Cas, but now started molding with it, focusing on Cas’ grace and integrating the two, changing Cas into a seraph and adding more wings and faces to his true form.  He topped off the flow of grace and released the newly created extra wings, letting them explode from Cas’ vessel’s back and stretch to their full length.  Light exploded from Cas as Lucifer cut off his grace, snapping it off and leaving it to incorporate itself with Cas’ grace, making him a seraph, only one step lower than an archangel.  Before fully leaving, Lucifer did his best to calm the grace he had put in Cas, freeing it to fully become a part of the younger angel.

He pulled his hand out of Cas’ chest and Cas, exhausted, let his head fall forward on Lucifer’s shoulder.  Lucifer made soft soothing noises and maneuvered Cas onto Lucifer’s lap so he could rub soothingly down Cas’ back, running his hands along Cas’ new wings to help him figure out where they were and locate the new muscles.  The whole process had taken a couple of hours, and now Lucifer let Cas adjust, his hands with a death grip on Lucifer’s leather jacket as he panted heavily into his shoulder.  Lucifer moved his own wings back slightly so they wouldn’t touch the younger angel, a gesture he wasn’t sure would be welcomed.  He himself wasn't doing so well either, it had been so long since he promoted an angel, last being he had changed was Paimon, and he was a demon.  They sat there, resting as the sun rising to its highest point and then moving on, both of them recuperating in silence.  It was about another hour before Cas finally moved, wrapping his legs around Lucifer’s waist and still tightly gripping his jacket, Cas turned his head to gaze at his new appendages, stretching them out in awe.  Reaching a hand forwards and curling the new wings inwards, Cas touched them softly.  As he leaned back Lucifer noticed that his handprint had been burned into Cas’ chest, matching the one the younger angel left on Lucifer’s shoulder.  Well that was unexpected, though not entirely unwanted.  Now everyone would know Cas belonged to him, Lucifer thought possessively before he could catch himself.  Deciding to follow the easiest route and ignore his strong desire to mark up and possess the younger angel, he looked away.

"There" Lucifer murmured contentedly, his voice slightly scratchy and his grace shivering from being cut apart. It was different than when he became Dean, this time his grace was completely integrated into Cas’ grace, forgetting its old owner and being claimed by a new one. "Now you’ll be safer."

"Wow" Cas breathed, continuing to stare at himself before turning back to Lucifer and wrapping his wings around the archangel, hiding the handprint as he once more rested on his lap, having fully left the log long ago. "Thank you Lucifer"

Lucifer hadn't really thought about the position he had moved Cas into, but now with the younger angel shifting to completely wrap around him, he had to remind his libido that now was _really_ not a good time. He was glad he was so worn out from cutting off part of his grace, cause it's be really hard to explain a boner right now.

"It needed to be done.”  Lucifer replied, his voice slightly strained “Besides, it'll protect you from any demons who come by chasing off angels. You'll feel like me to them, so they'll leave you alone."

Cas hummed in reply, settling down further and Lucifer squeezed his eyes shut, focusing on the least sexy things he could think of, Uriel's face, Bobby naked, the inside of his cage.  Eww, gross success.

"Maybe we should get a motel tonight, sleep and get Gabriel tomorrow?" Lucifer suggested, patting Cas’ back.  Cas made a short sound of agreement and Lucifer heaved himself and Cas up, stumbling a bit before straightening "Dude, you're heavy."

"I am fully content to sleep here." Cas grumbled and squirmed closer to Lucifer like he was trying to merge with him, being absolutely adorable, though Lucifer totally didn’t just think that.   Lucifer let out a short bark of amusement and stumbled over to the impala, leaning back on it and flying them to the nearest motel, a shabby one just inside the town.  Ignoring Cas’ protests, he pried him off and set him down on the impala, assuring him that Lucifer was just going to get a room, and would be back shortly.  Yawning heavily and trying to make shortly become an infinitesimal amount of time, he raced through the process of buying a room, grabbed Cas, who had now straightened out slightly, and half walked him, half carried him into the room. There were only two beds, but Cas completely avoided that problem by collapsing on it and trying to pull Lucifer down with him. Who knew the angel would be so cuddly?

“You know, angels don’t have to sleep.” Lucifer teased, steering clear of Cas’ grabby hands until he had pulled both their shoes off, hauled the covers away and rolled Cas under them, only then giving in and joining him.  As soon as his back touch the bed Cas reattached himself to Lucifer and, very promptly defying Lucifer’s statement, fell asleep.


	7. The Incredible Hulk Takes a Job at a Hospital

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer informs Castiel of his place in Lucifer's garrison radio and the new garrison of three play a beautiful melody, though Lucifer would never admit to thinking that. Castiel and Lucifer finally start searching for Gabriel and on the way are introduced to someone Lucifer totally didn't find sexy when he was Dean. And really still doesn't.

The first thing Lucifer saw when he woke up was Cas, the younger angel still sleeping, his eyes closed and hair sticking up adorably.  Thinking back to the day—or was it morning?—before, he was comfortable enough that Cas wouldn’t wake up for a while that he just let himself rest and enjoy watching Cas, remembering what seemed so long ago when he had told Cas he was creepy for watching Lucifer sleep.  He could totally see the reasoning behind it now, though he didn’t know whether that was because he was once again an angel, or because as an angel he didn’t practice the great art of denial so much. 

Deciding to not concentrate on it too much, he carefully got off the bed and went over to the door to see if he had managed to park impala well, flying while exhausted wasn’t the best of ideas.  Glancing out the window he was pleased to see it was undamaged and perfectly parked just outside.  Movement from the bed and he turned around to see Cas sitting up, frowning and then pulling his wings forwards and into his view, evidently reminded himself of what had happened.  And no wonder, Lucifer thought with a smile, the guy had passed out cold, inside a vessel it took longer to recuperate from a promotion.

‘ _Hey Castiel, how you doing?’_ Lucifer asked through the part of angel radio that let him communicate with his garrison.  It used to include all the different angels who had fallen with him, but since his cage and the angels had cut him off, Lucifer had only spent the energy needed to re-add Paimon and now with upgrading Cas, him as well.

Cas looked surprised at this, and tilted his head at Lucifer.  _‘I am part of your garrison now?’_

_‘Only if you want to be’_ Lucifer responded, though he really hoped that Cas did _“Because you rebelled the angels kicked you out of your old garrison, and because I technically promoted you, my grace put you in my garrison.  If you want you can shut yourself out of it, but it’s probably the best way to communicate without anyone but Paimon knowing”_

_“Paimon?”_ Cas asked warily, and Lucifer realized Cas must not have recognized their former brother when Paimon had saved Cas.  Made sense, Lucifer supposed.  No angel saw an archdemon and thought about the fact that they could be a Fallen brother.

_“He’s the archdemon who saved you from those angels.  Since he used to be an angel and I trust him I let him back in my garrison.”_ Lucifer explained, thankful that Paimon was being quiet on garrison radio though probably paying attention to what they were talking about.  He would’ve noticed Cas being yesterday when Lucifer added him to the garrison, everyone added their own sound.  Paimon was bone flutes and harps, Lucifer was drums and percussion, and Castiel was cellos and piano. The three actually managed to make quite a nice song.  _“Right now you, me, and him are the only ones tapped into this branch of angel radio”_

“Oh” Cas said aloud, breaking their gaze and nervously tugging at one of his black wings “You trust Paimon?”

“Yup” Lucifer assured, slightly confused by Cas’ almost nervous actions but choosing not to comment. “Completely.  He followed me down to hell when I Fell, he’s completely loyal and my best friend other than you.”

_“Okay.  I am glad to be in your garrison”_ Cas finally agreed, returning to the garrison radio for the words and then speaking aloud again, answering the question Lucifer had first asked.  “And I am well, thank you.  Are we going to find Gabriel now?”

Lucifer grinned and pushed himself up off of the wall, ignoring the pulse of amusement Paimon sent at him through the garrison radio. “Awesome.  And not yet, first things first, we’re getting some pie.”

 

~*~

 

Lucifer opened the door to the warehouse and stepped inside, grimacing at the state of it.  Him and Cas had gone and got pie and Lucifer had been absolutely relieved to find out he could still taste it.  Afterwards Cas had decided to be full of sense though and they decided to act like it was a normal case.  As much as one could be normal with Castiel instead of Sam, Lucifer instead of completely Dean and them already knowing who and what the weekly monster was.  To draw attention they talked to a woman whose husband was killed by the Incredible Hulk and then made a show of doing research around that.  Acting like a fed with Cas was almost as fun this time around, and Lucifer had almost completely blown their cover when Cas very seriously remarked that ‘ _It is not possible for a human to turn into a giant green humanoid.  Such a thing doesn’t exist_ ’, the cop whom they had been talking to had looked hilariously uncomprehending at this, and Cas had tried to rectify that by explaining the logistics further.  After they left Lucifer had had to sit in the impala for five minutes and just laugh.  He seriously never had as much fun hunting as he did with Cas, the angel was so endearingly clueless and it really showed when talking with people he didn’t know.  Cas hadn’t understood what was so funny, but smiled all the same, happy that Lucifer seemed to be having fun.  

After that they had overheard a call on the police radio that sounded like it could be Gabriel and so followed it to this warehouse, though it seemed to be empty.  Turning to comment on this to Cas, he felt the world shift around them.  He abandoned what he was going to say and glanced around, surprised to find him and Cas in full doctor get ups and standing in a hospital.  Confused, he opened the door they had just walked through and closed it again after finding two people furiously making out in a closet.  Exchanging a glance with Cas, he was once again interrupted in his master plan of stating the obvious by a nurse who walked up to him.

“Doctor” She said and then slapped Lucifer, causing him to jerk back in surprise.  “Seriously.’

“What” He asked in annoyance, he knew he recognized this place, but he didn’t quite have it yet or why Gabriel would send them here

“Seriously, you’re brilliant you know that?” She gasped at him then continued like she was upset “And a coward.  You’re a brilliant coward”

She added one more seriously for good measure, then walked away, leaving Lucifer gaping as he realized what was happening. 

“Dude!”  He hissed at Cas and moved so he had a clear line of sight to the front desk “This is Seattle Mercy Hospital. From Doctor Sexy M.D.”

Cas looked confused even with his clarification, oh right, angel’s don’t watch TV

“It’s a TV show,” He said with a failed attempt at flippancy “I don’t watch it very much”

Glad Sam wasn’t here so he didn’t get mocked for knowing all this, he set off, Cas following close behind.  They passed Dr. Wang and the ghost Johnny Drake, Lucifer pointing the characters out to Cas as they went by.  Cas asked why anyone would watch such a TV show, ‘didn’t they know it was completely inaccurate?’ and Lucifer scoffed and nervously agreed with him, looking away to hide his guilty face.  He stopped suddenly, all thoughts fleeing from his mind.  Dr. Sexy himself was walking out of the elevator and towards them.

“It’s Doctor Sexy” He hissed, elated as the Doctor stopped next to them.

“Doctor” Doctor Sexy greeted Lucifer

Glancing down at the floor and refusing to call how he was acting, ‘fangirling’, he managed to return the greeting.  Doctor Sexy turned to Cas and greeted him as well, before looking back at Lucifer who was still totally not seriously fangirling.  What the hell was Gabriel doing, putting them in Doctor Sexy M.D.?

“You want to give me one good reason why you defied my direct order to do the experimental face transplant on Mrs. Bell?” He asked disapprovingly. 

“One reason?”  He repeated, glancing down at the floor.  This all might be an illusion, but he was still talking to Doctor Sexy!  Or wait one second…  The guy was wearing tennis shoes, this was Gabriel, not Doctor Sexy.  Just where did he learn to hide his grace like that?

Stepping forwards and completely coincidently so that he was in front of Cas Lucifer glared at Gabriel. “Trickster.”

For a second it looked like Gabriel would try and hold the illusion, but then he lifted his hand and snapped, causing the whole illusion to pause

“Well you sure got that faster than your bother did last time.”  Gabriel said, grinning as the guise of Doctor Sexy wavered away and he was back in his vessel.  “Speaking of which, where is brother dearest, I’m wounded that he didn’t come to see me”

 “Like he’d want to see you again” Lucifer snorted, then narrowed his eyes, playing the guise of clueless human “What do you want?”

“Well first things first,” Gabriel drawled, looking over at Cas and Lucifer tensed, despite knowing that the younger angel would be now able to hold his own for a while against the archangel, he couldn’t stop his possessiveness from kicking in and screaming to protect what was his. “What’s up with you Cassie?  I knew there was an angel with the Winchesters, but you’re quite, different than the rumors say”

Cas flicked his eyes over to Lucifer and didn’t reply, evidently deciding to not test his acting skills. Probably a good idea, the guy sucked at lying. 

“Why don’t you say what you want first?  Sam’s not here, so you might as well just explain and I can pass on the message.”  Lucifer smirked and couldn’t resist testing Gabriel “And then maybe we’ll tell you.  As you said, Cas is an angel, and they’re a bit stronger than Tricksters.” 

“You want the message?”  Gabriel laughed “Well, Sam is the smart one, without him I doubt you’d get it and it is not as fun with just one of you.  Man up, get out there and play your role”

“My role?”  For a second Lucifer was confused, then understanding dawned.  Gabriel wanted him to play in the angel’s apocalypse.  Well crap, looked like he was probably with the angels after all.  “Oh this is great, a _Trickster_ is a supporter of the apocalypse.  Angels bitch hey?”

A shadow seemed to flit across Gabriel’s face and the mask of the Trickster shuddered “You have no idea what you’re talking about.  This has to end, and to do that, you and Sam have to be vessels.  You say yes to Michael and he says yes to Lucifer”

“So eager to see earth destroyed?  Want the lovely promised paradise?  Can’t say I see you doing very well there” Lucifer smirked and prodded “Which one are you batting for?  Heaven or Hell?”

Gabriel snorted angrily “I don’t care who wins, they’re both led by spoiled brats fighting over a daddy who’s long gone”

“Wow.  Now that sound personal” Lucifer cocked his head to the side as if confused “Either you also had daddy issues or you’re just really eager to see everything burn”

Next thing Lucifer knew Gabriel had thrown him back against the wall and Cas had stepped forwards, his multiple wings flaring open behind him.  Lucifer let the two of them scrap and smiled as Cas managed to get Gabriel to lose his concentration enough to let Lucifer go.   He could have just broken through, but he really wanted to see how much they could get out of Gabriel before telling him who Lucifer was.  The two angels continued to engage in their battle of wills and Lucifer pondered.  Gabriel hadn’t said he wanted the apocalypse, just wanted it over. Furthermore, what Lucifer had said about paradise had obviously struck a nerve, the archangel must have been really worried about the end of the world for him to react so strongly and get in a fight with Cas.  He wouldn’t be able to beat Cas without revealing he wasn’t just a Trickster, not even pagan gods could win against a seraph.

Deciding to step in and let Cas rest, Lucifer spoke casually, crossing his arms “Well Gabriel, I have to say, I’m kind of disappointed.  I would’ve thought you’d have planned further than just wanting it over”

Gabriel froze at his name and looked over at him, Cas walking forwards to stand beside Lucifer and shooting a glare his way, probably irritated with Lucifer letting their fight go so far. 

“Excuse me?”  Gabriel asked, his smirk back in place and evidently grasping to hold the guise of Trickster.

“Well I know for a fact that I’m not the only one here who’s hiding, and Castiel is definitely himself, so.” Lucifer shrugged, gesturing towards Gabriel “Hiding down here as a trickster?  Totally something you’d do Gabriel.”

“Who are you?”  Gabriel asked, stepping back and letting the illusion go, the warehouse reappearing around them. 

“Who are you fighting for?”  Lucifer countered, not answering “Or are you fighting at all?  Sitting out on the sidelines won’t get you anywhere”

“I’m not fighting for anyone, I just want this to be over” Gabriel hissed, still wary.

 “Great” Lucifer said, clapping his hands together and glancing at Cas.

_“I’m going to tell him”_ He sent and Cas nodded slightly, bracing himself in case Gabriel attacked.  Gabriel looked confused at their exchange, but like he was coming to a conclusion.  To make sure he got to the right one, Lucifer stopped hiding and released his wings of ice, expanding them to their full width.  Apprehension and something like ran across Gabriel’s face before he could hide it and he instinctively showed his own wings, slightly smaller than Lucifer’s but still an archangels compared with Cas’, their physical form taking that of an amber fire. 

“Lucifer” He stated, holding his wings poised for flight.

“Now, none of that little brother.”  Lucifer admonished, letting his own wings settle.  He had no idea how he managed as a human without being able to see other angel’s wings or use his own.  Wings told quite a lot about the emotional state of an angel and the way Gabriel held his now was almost resigned, slightly tattered and a little sad.  “I only want to talk”

Gabriel snorted, not moving.  “Oh of course you do.  Well I’ll just save you the trouble and let you know right now that I’m not helping you with the apocalypse.”

“Actually, I was hoping you’d help me stop it” Lucifer retorted, then winced.  Being aggressive here would gain him nothing

“As if you’d ever want to stop it” Gabriel replied angrily “Though I am curious as to why Dean Winchester is your vessel, throwing a wrench in Michaels plans?”

Lucifer grinned, Gabriel had no idea how close how close that was to what he had originally thought.  Trying to sober up a bit, he laid out the general story, picking the most important parts of his decisions and changes as a human and after.  He had come to Gabriel for help, but knew the younger archangel wouldn’t trust him without really good reason.  By the time Lucifer was finished his story however, Gabriel’s wings had relaxed more, still tense, but not on the verge of flight.

“I don’t want the apocalypse Gabriel, I fucked up a lot of things, and though I don’t regret leaving, I don’t want hell on earth or the angel’s paradise.”  Lucifer finished, not knowing what else to say.  Either Gabriel did believe him or he didn’t.

“So, let me get this straight.  You partially escaped your cage, became a human, went to hell, got out of hell, put yourself back together and now love humanity.” Gabriel shortened it, grinning at the grimace on Lucifer’s face “And you promoted Castiel.”

“Not all of humanity.  Just, most of it” He muttered, recalling the many completely human monsters he had met over his life.  Occasionally in the past few months he had gone to the racks and worked off some steam on them.  Perk of being the king of hell. 

Glancing at Cas he grinned, Cas had relaxed his wings slightly and had his head tilted at Gabriel but still ready to fight.  The new wings really suited the guy.  “Ya, well, he needed it.”

“Alright, say I believe you.”  Gabriel drawled, looking amused about something, “You want me to help you with stopping the apocalypse.  How?”

“Umm, there’s quite a bit still to do.  We aren’t really sure with how to go about doing everything either, so we were hoping you would help us plan.” Lucifer admitted

“I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt for now then Luce.” Gabriel said seriously, then broke out into a grin.  “And as for what we’re going to do next, I believe we’re going to need some more candy.”


	8. Washing Brains and Candy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the reunion with Gabriel, Lucifer decides to talk to Sam. All in all, it could've been worse

Reuniting with Gabriel was definitely one of the weirder moments in Lucifer’s, and that was saying a lot.  They flew to the motel Cas and Lucifer were staying at and Gabriel snapped up almost a stores worth of candy to eat, after making quite a few innuendos and jokes about Cas and Lucifer’s closeness.  They actually spent quite a bit of time in the beginning with catching up and Gabriel and Castiel properly meeting, the latter having been at a rank that never really spoke to archangels before everything had gone down.  They seemed to like each other fair enough considering their clashing personalities, and after a brief stall in which Gabriel insisted that Castiel try some taffy and the younger angel got it stuck in his teeth, the three of them  got down to business. 

Gabriel wanted to be kept in the loop about apocalypse related things, but free to continue his pagan ways in the meantime.  And wasn’t that just a funny surprise?  Gabriel was also Loki, the Norse god of mischief, a role that seemed to fit him perfectly.  Lucifer had no problems with that continuing, any human who was targeted by a trickster got what they deserved, in Lucifer’s opinion, and most of them arrived in his kingdom after their deaths to further this reasoning. 

Gabriel had made it clear that he was still pissed off at Lucifer for his fighting with Michael and, after witnessing Cas dryly making fun of Lucifer and not getting smote, Gabriel let Lucifer know exactly what he thought about it all.  Lucifer had apologized again, as he hadn’t actually thought about the repercussions of his choices, but also made it clear he wouldn’t change what he had done even if he could.  He regretted it, but quite liked the way things were now.  Gabriel had seemed satisfied with this, and Cas did his patented head tilt, but that part of the discussion went no further.

At first Lucifer was going to keep Cas out of the loop regarding the horsemen, but his annoying human conscience got in the way of that plan, reminding him that keeping secrets from anyone he completely trusted never helped things.  So he spilled his thoughts on Death.  Like Lucifer had thought, Cas didn’t like the idea, both him and Gabriel were wary of anything that looked like furthering the apocalypse, but Lucifer countered with the help they could get from him, the slightly unconventional raising they could do, plus the fact that this was the only horsemen they would set free, and eventually he managed to bring them around to the point where they weren’t completely against it.  Lucifer knew there was more than one way to summon Death, he just didn’t know all the specifics of the more humane way, and promised that when he figured it out, he would let Cas know everything before doing it. 

They all agreed it was best for both Gabriel and Lucifer to continue hiding from the angels and Castiel to hide his power upgrade unless it couldn’t be helped.  Their conversation slowed down here, and in between bites of Gabriel’s twentieth candy bar, he suggested that to get into contact with each other they would just pray back and forth, as he couldn’t and had no desire to join Lucifer’s garrison for garrison radio.  On this high note they parted, Gabriel leaving nothing behind but a mountain of wrappers and the smell of toffee.  Cas and Lucifer left the more human way, Lucifer getting behind the wheel of the impala before flying them onto a long stretch of highway to drive and talk.

“What has Sam been saying?”  Lucifer finally broached the subject after a long period of explaining the new sections of hell and their purposes to Castiel

“He thinks you’re possessing Dean and when I last saw him, was trying to figure out how to get you out of him as soon as possible.  My opinion didn’t sway his desire to kill you at all” Cas said bluntly, and Lucifer winced.  The guy still hadn’t learned tact, not that Lucifer really wanted it at this moment.  It was one of the refreshing and insignificantly annoying things about Castiel, you could ask him whatever, and he’d give you a real answer.

“Well that’s reassuring” Lucifer grumbled, but then asked “Do you think I should go talk to him in person?  I was debating on just calling him”

“You do need to talk to him” Cas agreed “You should probably phone him first to let him know you’re coming though.  Neither of you have ever seemed to like it when I arrived unannounced”

Lucifer snorted at the reminder, remembering jumping whenever Cas appeared, never expecting him without being able to hear the sound of wing beats and feel the angel coming close.  “Ya, good times.  I think I’ll do that now, he still at Bobby’s?”

Cas nodded, then paused, looking like he was thinking carefully “Do you want me to go with you?”

“Yes” Lucifer answered almost before Cas had finished speaking, and shrugged “That’d be great if you could.  Would make me feel better”

Any regrets from agreeing so quickly left when Cas smiled at him, a soft smile that totally didn’t melt Lucifer into a gooey puddle.  So maybe Lucifer was still dabbling in the act of denial.  Didn’t mean he had to admit it.  Lucifer returned the smile, and they fell back into a comfortable silence that Lucifer loved.  It was another of the great things about Cas, they could be around each other for hours without talking, and yet it wouldn’t feel strained, but rather like equilibrium, calm and peaceful

 

~*~

                                                                                           

Arriving at Bobby’s house in the impala with Cas in the front seat felt almost natural, except for the fact that he couldn’t get into the junkyard and so had to park the impala outside and roll it inside.  Surprisingly enough, Cas couldn’t go in either.

“They cut you out too?”  Lucifer exclaimed as he pushed the impala forward and through the wards to rest unceremoniously in the middle of the road, much to Lucifer’s distress

“Yes, It appears they did.  I imagine it was because they saw me leaving with you” Cas replied, lifting his hand and resting it against the invisible wall of the wards. 

Lucifer laughed at that, though it wasn’t really funny.  “What all did you tell Sam?”

“I relayed all the information about how you became Dean, told him that your grace is the same as your soul, and let him know that you wanted to stop the apocalypse” Cas replied, “I told him you had Paimon save my life, though I didn’t know his name at the time”

“Thanks man” Lucifer said gratefully, taking a moment to prepare himself before pulling his phone out, dialing Sam’s number and listening to it ring.

“Lucifer” Sam’s voice came through hard on the other end

“Hey Sammy” Lucifer replied, and Cas turned to look at him, nodding in encouragement.  “Can we talk?”

“Don’t call me that.”  Sam said angrily, “And what could we possibly have to talk about.  I don’t know how you got to Dean, but I’m going to get you out and then I’m going to kill you”

“Dude, get over yourself.  I’m not going to be able to explain things unless you listen.  And if I really wanted the apocalypse, why would I want _you_ to help me.” Lucifer winced after he said it, but didn’t try and retract anything.  The least Sam could do was actually try and figure out if he was telling the truth.  Why was it that the kid was so eager to trust Ruby, but now didn’t even listen to his own brother?  Then again, they had separated on not the best terms, and Lucifer _was_ the devil.

“Don’t try that with me, you may have brainwashed Cas into believing you, but I’m not going to give you the chance” The line went dead and Lucifer removed the phone from his ear to stare at it in amazement.  He hadn’t actually thought Sam would just hang up on him.

“Why would you wash my brain?” Cas asked in a confused tone, having listened in, and Lucifer just burst out laughing.  Oh Father, Cas was perfect, no doubt about it

“He doesn’t mean literally washing your brain Cas” Lucifer got out between laughs and turned towards the younger angel, a huge grin on his face “He thinks I’ve manipulated you into believing me”

That was a slightly sobering fact, but seriously, what the hell.  In the past months in hell and days on earth, Lucifer had gone through so many different emotions, revelations, and stuff that completely fucked with his mind.  Taking a little amusement from Castiel wasn’t going to end the world.

“Why are you laughing?” Cas asked, tilting his head and looking like he didn’t know whether to laugh also or be offended

“Because you’re awesome.”  Lucifer clapped him over the shoulder and then turned back to contemplating the house “How am I supposed to talk to Sam if he’s going to hang up on me?”

“Maybe you shouldn’t lose your temper?”  Cas suggested, grinning slightly at Lucifer’s answer.

Lucifer snorted “Ya, that’d probably be a good idea, wouldn’t it.  I’m just going to try again”

Pressing redial, he waited, once again surprised when he got through.  Deciding to speak before Sam got the chance he quickly said, “Don’t hang up on me.  We don't have to talk like civilized people, but I just want you to actually listen”

There was silence from the other end, but Lucifer could hear agitated breathing up close and more further away.   Sam on the phone and Bobby in the same room, Lucifer guessed and took the silence as permission to continue.  “Alright, so I already told you about the whole escaping from the cage thing and cutting off a piece of my grace.  Continuing that, I grew up as Dean Winchester, I remember everything I did as him, I’m just complete now and also remember everything I did as Lucifer.  I didn’t brainwash Cas, and I don’t want the apocalypse, I’m working to stop it actually”

“Oh ya?  And how are you doing that?”  Sam asked, the distain in his tone making it clear he didn’t believe Lucifer. 

“I’ve been ignoring the angels and their attempts to get this show on the road, I’ve rounded up and reassigned the demons and reorganized hell. Cas and I just got back from finding Gabriel, who has been missing from heaven for who knows how long, and convinced him to help Team Free Will.  I’m not going to fight Michael or raise hell on earth.”  Lucifer listed, trying to think “I’m still your brother Sam, that hasn’t changed”

“How do I know you’re not just lying to me?”  Sam finally asked in that same scathing tone, but Lucifer could tell from having spent so much time with him that Sam was starting to believe him.  Maybe.

“Cas looked at my grace, it’s the same as my soul was, he told you that.” Lucifer persuaded

 “You could’ve brainwashed him” Sam repeated, but definitely sounded unsure now.  There was a muffled sound as if Sam was covering the phone, but thanks to his angelic senses, Lucifer still heard Bobby speaking on the other side

“He is taking care of the impala like Dean did” Bobby pointed out, as if Lucifer wouldn’t appreciate his baby just ‘because he could fly again “All in all, he might be telling the truth”

“But he’s Lucifer” Sam hissed

“And he saved you from those vamps, and Dean’s angel from the other angels” Bobby seemed to be on Lucifer’s side, Lucifer thought in surprise.  He didn’t see that coming “Why would he do that if he’s already got a vessel and all of hell jumping at his commands?”

There was a pause and then the muffled noise left and Sam spoke again.  “Alright, say I believed you.  How do you plan on stopping it for good?”

“Honestly?”  Lucifer said with a sigh, “Talking to Michael, try and sort it out diplomatically first?  I have no idea.”

“Okay.” Sam said, hesitating, “I’m not sure I entirely believe you yet, but me and Bobby will do some research on it.  Tell you if we find anything to just, I don’t know, cut the angels off from earth?  We’ll look around.”

Lucifer let out another sigh, this time of relief.  “Awesome, and if you ever need any help or to contact me, just pray and I’ll be right there.” 

“Praying to the devil?  Not something I ever saw myself doing” Sam replied, but from his tone he didn’t really want to discuss it “But alright.”

“Bitch.” Lucifer said, trying to keep it from being a question.

“Jerk.” Sam shot back and then hung up, Lucifer flipping his phone closed and slipping back into his pocket.

Lucifer turned to comment on how well that went to Cas, opening his mouth and returning the grin growing on the younger angels face, but was stopped by a cry over garrison radio.

_“Lucifer!  Get your ass down here”_ Paimon shouted _“Demon uprising in progress!  Evidently not everyone loves you as much as I do.”_


	9. Strategies are Awesome, No, Seriously. Awesome.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a former strategist of heaven, Castiel decides to join Lucifer in taking down the demon uprising in hell. The battles might seem completely normal, but isn't torture fascinating?

Castiel’s eyes widened in shock as the voice cut through his mind, mirroring Lucifer perfectly

“Shit” Lucifer swore, opening his wings and then pausing “Cas, I got to go”

“I’m coming with you” Castiel didn’t even have to think about it, it might have been the completely unjustifiable jealousy at Paimon’s words of loving Lucifer, it could’ve been Castiel’s desire to help in any way he could.  Either way, he didn’t make it an offer and continued when it looked like Lucifer was about to protest “I’m a soldier, I was a strategist in heavens battles Lucifer.  I’m helping”

“Fine, follow me” Lucifer’s voice was almost angry and the archangel accompanied it with a glare, but he didn’t complain further, too worried about hell to waste time.  He took off and Castiel jumped through the space between after him.  Knowing that Dean’s tactics for dealing with worry had always been anger, Castiel didn’t put much stock into Lucifer’s clipped words or tone. 

It was weird going back to hell, Castiel pondered as they flew, the other two times he had been to the pit he had been part of an invading force or dragged down when half dead.  Now though, flying with Lucifer and in his garrison, hell accepted him fully, warping around his wings and speeding him in his flight.  They landed on top a battle filled cliff over a stream of acid and lava in which souls were screaming and withering with pain, touching down in a small cleared spot, evidently someone had seen them coming.  Lucifer strode over to an archdemon Castiel recognized from before, evidently Paimon, and without bothering for pleasantries, Paimon grabbed Lucifer shoulder and began to lay out information.  After noticing Castiel, Paimon reached out and grabbed him too, pulling the surprised angel closer

  “The rebels were smart, took control of Sharp and are advancing on Heat, Dull and Release.”  Paimon stated “They’re doing pretty well in Dull, so if you could go there and Castiel could go to Release?  I got Heat”

There were six different sections of hell, and then multiple wings inside those and smaller divisions within those.  Lucifer had explained most of hell to Castiel on the trip back from talking to Gabriel.  The sections were named for the six main types of physical torture, Heat, Cold, Dull, Sharp, Tension and Release, with other, smaller categories like deprivation used in Release and overstimulation in Heat, physiological tortures spread out everywhere.  The amount of compartmentalizing they did in hell, only to use all the tortures in moderation even where they weren’t specified was interesting.  The higher demons actually owned pieces of hell, and could torture souls in their homes or take them anywhere in hell. 

There were few rules about the whole thing, and even fewer that were regularly enforced, but for those that were, there was a small division of blue eyed demons who lived their lives patrolling and dragging demons who were out of line back to Cold, where Lucifer ruled most fiercely.  He wasn’t usually the one to torture these demons back into submission though.  Lucifer had let slip once that he much preferred to seek out souls he knew from being human, a few in particular who had absolutely destroyed him as a teenager, though due to his lifestyle and human dad he had never been able to do anything but hide it.  Times like those were when Castiel really wanted to harm someone, feeling protective of the archangel though he had neither right nor reason to do so. 

Back to the matter at hand, Castiel was slightly surprised that Paimon had included him in informing them of the situation though, the angel had gotten used to Paimon’s music on ‘garrison radio’ but they had never actually had a real conversation where Castiel was fully conscious.

“Sounds good.  We’ll open garrison radio fully, after fishing with each of those sections we’ll all move onwards to Sharp” Lucifer agreed, then sent a questioning glance at Castiel, questioning whether the angel was alright with fighting for a section of hell.  Well, Castiel _had_ said he’d help

“Will anyone listen to me?” Castiel asked anyways, just to make sure

“Are you kidding?  You have tons of Lucifer’s grace in you, the only way you two could smell more alike is if you had sex.  Of course they’ll listen to you” Paimon snorted, then ducked away, easily maneuvering under Lucifer’s wing which he had tried to smack the archdemon with.  Laughing and moving to rejoin the battle, Paimon threw one last call of, “Good luck!” over his shoulder and disappeared back into the fight.

Castiel could feel his cheeks heat up slightly at Paimon’s comment, and tried to ignore it.  From what Castiel had seen of the other two’s interactions, he had concluded that Lucifer and Paimon must be romantically involved, so he wasn’t sure if the reasoning behind the mocking was because he had been too friendly with Lucifer where Paimon could hear.  Maybe this was a warning?  Didn’t really sound like it though. 

“I know where Release is” Castiel stated to avoid an awkward moment “I’ll be on my way”

Lucifer nodded and wished him luck, both of them flying their separate directions.  Despite Castiel’s confident words, he was actually quite nervous.  Yes, he was a seraph now, but he was also in hell trying to get demons to listen to him.  Reaching Release and flying around he circled the nearest area where quite a few demons were fighting, these ones trying to keep their footing on an endless gel like floor and fighting like rabid animals.  He took note of the different positions of all the groups of demons who seemed to be fighting together, not knowing who was on which side.  As soon as he landed a demon threw itself at him with teeth bared and he instinctively smote it, hoping it hadn’t been one of Lucifer’s.

“Finally they send someone!”  A voice hissed from behind him, and Castiel spun to find a white-eyed demon in a female vessel flicking the remains of a black-eye off of her short sword.  “You better be able to give directions angel”

“Which demons are ours?”  Castiel asked, assuming this was one of Lucifer’s and glancing around to make sure no one was attacking them.  A couple of black-eyes were carving out a space around them, meaning this white-eye was their leader.

“Are you kidding, I don’t know where everyone is, can’t you just do that mind thingy to figure it out?”  The demon asked, looking annoyed but appropriately wary at her own suggestion “You’re with Lucifer right?  You feel like him”

Castiel gave one sharp nod and stepped closer to the demon, reaching out and touching her face, ignoring the flinch he received.  With one quick sweep over her mind, Castiel could tell which demons were which.  Thinking back to his eagle eye view of the battle, Castiel ran through a list of commands as the white-eyed pulled a couple black-eyes towards them to act as runners

“Alright, take the demons from the right flank and have them pull back and form a concave U.  The group that’s cut off in the middle will follow the rebels when they attack and both of the groups will close in around them.  Have all the demons on the left form a rallying line and push the demons back towards the ones who aren’t fighting yet.  Get everyone into formation and then we’ll move on my mark” Castiel commanded, falling into his old role as garrison leader after Ana left.

The white-eyed demon assigned each black-eye a different section to go to, then turned back to Castiel, looking at him with slim amount of respect.  “Alright angel, let’s see how you do”

She nodded once in deference and left to rejoin the fighting, the pocket of clear space leaving with her.  Castiel slid his angel blade into his palm and deflected a blow from a dagger right away, smiting the demon and moving on.  A red-eye spotted him and screeched, the noise rounding up a couple of lesser demons who all threw themselves at him at once.  Dodging the first demon he struck outward in a long slash, catching another one and opening its stomach, the first demon grabbed at him and he flared his wings, burning them through it as he smote the next one.  The red-eye ran at him and ducked under his palm, trying to push Castiel back with its powers.  Castiel only expended enough energy to lock with it, moving physically forwards while it was distracted and burying his knife in its neck.

The next few minutes passed by much the same, a mixture of sword fighting and smiting that was a welcome relief to fighting his brothers.  The entire art of smiting, of fighting against evil and turning it to dust beneath his fingertips, the bright red blood that sprayed out from where his blade darted, the screams of twisted souls caught in their death throes, it was beautiful down in the black nothingness they fought across.  Something Castiel could so easily get caught in, insane amusement flirted through him as he thought about his strange fascination in the midst of so much gore and battle.  If a year ago he had been told he would find himself in hell fighting for Lucifer against rebel demons, he’d check if the speaker was possessed.  If they told him he’d be enjoying the slower deaths and the graceful movements of causing them, Castiel would have smote them purely on principle.  It was just, intriguing, absorbing and engrossing, _new,_ and much easier to get lost in as a seraph.

_“Another one won. Only one more battle and a couple little skirmishes left here!”_ Paimon’s voice cut through Castiel’s mad thoughts and the fighting, _“Rebels are being completely destroyed”_

_“I hope you aren’t bragging”_ Lucifer joined in to remark _“We all know you took the easiest place.”_

Paimon’s only reply was laughter, and Castiel refocused, leaping into the air, flying upwards and hovering above the battle.  Remembering the information he had gotten from the white-eyes mind, he was pleased to see all the demons had followed his orders.  Instead of the wriggling mass, they had drawn together into the odd shape of two parallel lines and a U facing a slightly curved line.  It would be a perfect slaughter of the unorganized leaderless rebels.  Taking a deep breath, he let out an angel battle call, and his demons surged closed.  The rebels were caught in-between the onslaughts, and from his position in the air Castiel could see his demons taking the time to torture them as they died, using anything at hand to prolong deaths.  Weird, even in the midst of battle they were succumbing to their base instincts.  

Deciding that the rest of the group could win without him there, Castiel only stopped to pick out the white eye and make sure she could handle the rest of it before flying on, locating the next batch of fighting demons to join.

Before he could land though, Lucifer gave another status report _“Alright, two battles left here and with the rest there isn’t a chance of us losing.  Castiel?  Paimon?  How are y’all doing?”  
“Same as before young Texan, wrapping this one up though, should be finished in no time.” _Paimon’s reply felt heavy, and Castiel could feel pain as a harsh discord to Paimon’s song, he was wounded, though it didn’t sound life threatening, and though Lucifer was mildly irritated from something in his words, he said nothing.

_“I’ll look around”_ Castiel sent, wheeling back up into the air and sweeping down the length and width of Release, not finding it a proper ‘geometrical’ shape like sections were in heaven, but instead a weird thing that looked like a really stretched out and curving cloud.  In other words, Castiel had no idea how to describe it, though he was able to find and assess the fighting demons, surprised to find some who were just torturing, completely ignoring the chaos around them.  Satisfied and evaluating the battle nearest, Castiel sent out his response _“They didn’t get far into these sections, only one large battle left here too, I don’t know who is winning the skirmishes”_

_“They stretched themselves too thin with taking Sharp, most of the demons are smart enough not to fight hell”_ Lucifer commented and they left it at that, not sending anything but still keeping clinical track of garrison radio to listen for discords.

To Castiel’s satisfaction, sorting out the other battle mostly just took his guidance in organizing things, and needed little of his actual fighting skills.  When he observed this aloud, Paimon explained that their best strategists had been sent to Sharp to figure out how to take it back.  Accepting this and letting the demons deal with the remaining rebels as the battle was won, Castiel sent out a query as to where to go in Sharp.

_“I’m with the planners now, and I’m calling them that no matter how much it makes me feel like a kindergarten teachers.  So just fly towards me, you’ll pass over Tension, but you can just ignore it.”_ Paimon answered, then paused _“How do you feel about fighting out of your vessel?  I don’t know if you’ll need to just drop it off somewhere, but they want to send you off to smite everything in range in a heavily occupied part of Sharp”_

_“I can leave my vessel without actually leaving it behind. After I died Jimmy didn’t get resurrected with me”_ Castiel answered, slightly worried about being the only angel around so many enemy demons, and though he tried to hide it, he knew it sounded in his song.

_“There isn’t much binding equipment for angels with demons other than Lucifer or myself, but we will have our demons coming in after to clean up and I’ve set up one of my garrisons to make sure nothing goes wrong with you”_ Paimon assured, and Castiel reluctantly agreed, feeling a small sense of belonging at the extra thought for his safety.  Casting one last glance around Release and deciding it was probably one of the less entertaining sections of hell to torture souls with, he flew towards the archdemon. 

 

 

Like Paimon had warned, Castiel did pass over Tension.  He tried to ignore it at first, but his gaze constantly fell back on the twisted racks and chains, the horrifying torture instruments with souls screaming on them and demons going about their business gleefully.  Castiel expected to feel disgust, but could only summon up a curious sense of fascination.  When Lucifer had explained hell to Castiel, he had spilled a lot more than Castiel was sure he meant to, part of the conversation his mind had obviously been on other things, Sam probably.  Anyways, Lucifer had unwittingly gone off into detailed descriptions of torturing souls he had had known as a human, and Castiel felt much like he had then.  Things that up in heaven they had cleanly called ‘re-education’ were so common here, social norms that Castiel didn’t understand were flayed apart, and he found it fascinating, awe-inspiring even.  The art of causing pains far too great for the human—or any other creature specially drug into hell—mind to handle, forcing it to break and become something so vile as a demon.  It was enthralling, and someday he really wanted to watch Lucifer take apart a soul, to see him not torturing as a charge to free from hell, but as the King of Hell entertaining himself.

Startled by that last thought, Castiel skipped a wing beat and hastily righted himself in the air, feeling Paimon quite close and shoving all sadistic thoughts from his mind.  He had been having far too many of them as late, probably since even before he disobeyed, starting with an underlying possessiveness of Dean.  Paimon was behind a huge rocky jut out in the far edge of Sharp, surrounded by all eye-colored demons except yellow, even a couple blue and green eyes were there.  He had his dragon like wings out, standing proudly to either side of his back, though the right one had quite a big slash in it that must have to have hurt.  Castiel didn’t know Paimon well, but Lucifer evidently trusted him, so Castiel could too. 

A blue-eye motioned Castiel over to a flat jut out of rock, on which sat quite a few heavy maps, something Castiel had had no idea hell even had

“Castiel, we have you planned out to go there, if you could just go supernova, whatever it is that you angels do to kill a lot of things at once.  There is the unorganized equivalent to about three garrisons stationed there, but Paimon says you’re a seraph, so you should be fine.”  The demon said swiftly, pointing to a section on the map about halfway into the ‘east’ of Sharp, and Castiel was struck by the oddness of having demons address him by name and differ to him even while outlaying carefully set plans. “It would be appreciated if you just stay there for a bit, smite everything around, and then draw back and we’ll send in three of our own garrisons to clean up the rest, plus Paimon’s garrison that he’s temporarily bequeathing to you.  You’ll be trying to take back the whole east section with that maneuver and can send the rest of your demons to take out the rest of the demons there”

“There are also groups of, again, the unorganized equivalent of about three garrisons here, here and here” Another demon pointed them out, all at strategic looking points on the map, one of the rebels had to be really good at what they were doing, considering the layout. The place Castiel was sent to was on top of a big rocky jut out, with spikes all along the edges and the top covered in grass like needles, as the map noted, along with quite a few other tortures that Castiel deemed unimportant to his job.  “So they shouldn’t interfere with you”

“Alright” Castiel pulled the word out slightly, unaware of how much he was acting like Lucifer used to while planning for hunts.  Revaluating and removing a few tortures from his unimportant pile, Castiel pointed where he wanted the different garrisons to approach from.  “I won’t be able to pick and choose who I smite, so I want one garrison to approach staggered from behind these spike outcrops and one to stay in this cave, I don’t know, throw a bunch of souls down there to cover up the crystal and allow them to stand there. 

“The third garrison I want to be ready to drag injured rebels down and impale them on anything they can find, Trojan horses, bamboo, whatever else is down there.  Make sure they travel with spotters though, don’t want anyone getting ambushed.” Castiel supposed angels and demons were more alike than he had thought.  Everyone used the environment to their advantage, didn’t matter what it was.  Glancing up at the archdemon and lessoning the authority in his tone, Castiel asked, “Paimon, can you get your garrison to all leave their vessels and just hover over the clouds?  I’m sure a few of the stronger demons can stop the ball bearings from falling everywhere if it’s raining.  Them combined with the clouds should be dense enough to cover up my grace so it won’t scorch them. I'll call once for your garrison to let go of the clouds, and a second time for everyone to attack.”

Paimon nodded with a grin, walking over and placing himself right beside Castiel to look at the map, brushing up against his side.  This would probably fall under violation of Deans rules of personal space, Castiel decided, but also found out he didn’t really care.  Both Lucifer and Dean had conveniently forgotten the rule themselves on quite a few occasions, why couldn’t Castiel?  Paimon gestured at a red-eye in a male vessel and a black-eye in a female vessel, and they approached

“Sound like a plan.  Castiel, these are Whaliin and Karla, joint leaders of the garrison I’m lending you” Paimon drawled.  Castiel felt some surprise at a black-eye being even half of a garrison leader, but nodded anyways.

_“And we are finished up here.”_ Lucifer sent with a note of pleasure and amusement, easily interrupting the meeting _“Where has it been decided that ‘it might be best’ for me to go?”_

“One second all, I’m informing Lucifer where he _could_ go” Paimon informed the gathered demons and mocked the obvious attempt of the strategists to not order around the higher ups aloud before replying dryly to Lucifer. _“You are going up against three garrisons at the biggest gathering of racks.  That totally sounds like a gathering of some human fantasy creature for a picnic, but I’m too lazy to think of another description, so it’ll have to do.  Basically, plan is, you go over there, go all badass and archangelly on their asses, since the rest of your garrison is going seraphy or archdemony on other rebel asses, you’ll just have to manage on your own.  Hell seems to like you, so maybe it’ll even help”_

_“I’m going to pretty much discard half of what you just said, and I might even fire you on the whole informant deal.”_ Lucifer joked, _“But sounds good, don’t get yourselves killed now!”_

The last message was sent to them both, and though put in a tone of playfulness, Lucifer sung worry underneath as Castiel felt him start moving away.  Touched by this, and perhaps taking upon himself the role that angels of every rank took towards their equals and higher ups, Castiel reached out and grabbed Paimon’s wing.  To his surprise, another discord appeared in the archdemons song, this time showing fear before he could quell it to something barely noticeable.  Castiel met Paimon’s confused and wary eyes as he let his grace stitch up the wing and erase the noticeable pain discord.  Surprise now colored Paimon, but Castiel turned away before any of them could examine his reasoning for it.  From the feel of Lucifer, he had also noticed something odd happening, but thankfully didn’t ask or comment.

“We should go now.” Castiel stated, and the demons instantly sprang into motion, runners leaving and the rest preparing to fight.

“And they listen to you.” Paimon mock complained “If I had known all I’d need was a gold halo and a bunch of feathery wings, I’d have tried that years ago!”

“I don’t have a golden halo.” Castiel responded, slightly concerned, Paimon had been an angel once, he should know that wasn’t true.   “I am made completely out of grace with formless shapes, but nothing that would look like the traditional circular halo.”

“Got a square one then?” Paimon asked and too late Castiel realized Paimon was mocking him.  Oh right, of course.

Deciding to try to continue the banter anyways, Castiel gave one last serious reply, and from Paimon’s surprised laughter, he had probably gotten it right.  “No, it’s triangular.  And blue”

 

~*~

 

Flying through rebel demon infested territory in the middle of hell was not pleasant, Castiel decided.  In fact, it kind of sucked.  He had no idea how he had gotten so used to fighting alongside demons so quickly, but right now he was quite glad that he had asked Paimon's garrison to join him.  They were all flying and crawling above the clouds over Sharp, but below the treacherously rocky and sorry excuse for a roof to separate levels, and Castiel was insanely glad he was a good enough flyer to not hit either.  The clouds below were noisy and filled with small ball bearings instead of rain, and instead of the ball bearings having smooth surfaces; they were completely covered in one centimeter long spines.  The amount of time they had to build up speed before hitting the ground, Castiel imagined that they would tear through skin, punch dents in steal and probably even sink into rock.  He had to keep his many pairs of wings perfectly flat and fully stretched out to avoid them, and almost crawl along the roof, grabbing it to pull him forwards when he slowed too much.  It was made even worse by the fact that Paimon’s garrison was collecting them as they went, and they built up quite thick.

"Ten meters" Karla shouted from behind him, the language of hell rolling easily off her vesseless tongue. 

Castiel forced himself not to shudder at the sound and answered.  "Alright, clear a path for me through the clouds."

He had surprisingly quickly gotten used to the idea of torture, but the whole language thing still bothered his grace.  Dimly he wondered whether he'd become like Paimon if he stayed in hell too long, draconic and demonized.  Pushing those thoughts from his mind, Castiel slowed, grabbing onto the roof and hooking his feet into the rocky surface so he could hang.  Around him the demons spread out and latched on as well, some of the more powerful ones bunching closest and pulling back the clouds to reveal a huge drop towards a red and silver hill.  Blood and knives, bloody knives.

"Good luck!" Karla called from beside him, and Castiel felt amusement rush through him as he nodded in reply.  If only Zachariah could see him now.  Part of the re-education when Castiel had been pulled out of his vessel was trying to make Castiel believe that following Dean would get him killed or thrown down into hell, cut off from the angels and condemned.  And now here he was, having died once already, cut off from the angels, condemned, fighting in hell and being wished luck by a demon.  They really did a terrible job of reconditioning him away from Dean.

Castiel released the roof and allowed himself to fall through the clouds, out the other side to be faced with a landscape covered in rebel demons.  When he was about fifty meters from the ground, he released his grace.  None of the rebels stationed on the ground noticed him until he exploded from his vessel, becoming—once again in too long a time—the multi-dimensional wavelength of celestial intent that was his true form.  Their cries of shock quickly turned to screams as Castiel swooped down through and around them, extending his grace to burn out as many demons as he could.  The smell of sulfur mushroomed into the air like a human bomb, and a thread of irritation ran through him at the thought of having to groom his wings afterwards. 

A few of the demons seemed to get a grip on themselves and Castiel felt a sharp pain, it appeared one of them had something to harm angels with.  Sweeping upwards and curling, Castiel allowed one of his diamond hard primaries to form and scoop the demons up and hurl them away, knocking down the demons that remained standing.  Those who hadn't closed their eyes quickly enough had been blinded, and so would have a hard time reorienting themselves before Castiel killed them too.  Then again, from the increasing amount of power thrown at him, he decided it was better to call his garrisons together now rather than wait till the rebels caught or locked with Castiel.  He might be a seraph, but could only do so much against so many demons.

Flying upwards again and returning into his vessel, he quickly pulled a couple interlocking pairs of wings over his head as a shield, curled the rest around him to protect, and then let out a long drawn out call.  It really was too bad he didn't have a horn from heaven to blow, their melodious tones shouted battle and power, but elegance, like a dance.  He heard a crack as the clouds were released, and the first ball bearings hit his wings and pinged off, letting out chimes that sang through his black crystalline feathers and echoed loudly.  He'd have to be the source of the angelic music if he wanted it. 

The bottom of the wave of ball bearings passed under him and he stared in awe at the continuous pouring of them.  Paimon's garrison must have been holding up tons of them, as they kept on falling solidly for almost five seconds before starting to diminish to a steady rain.  A thought struck him, and he realized he didn't know what happened to them after they hit the ground, they couldn't just collect there, so Castiel assumed they would probably soak away or disappear.   With the amount there though, they'd be fighting in them for quite a bit, depending on how long they took to leave.  If there were any rebels left to fight, Castiel reflected as the ball bearings hit the ground and the wounded rebels, a symphony of metal joining the music from his wings.  The whole thing was clashing and loud, screams and metal, but mixed in with his music and garrison radio and it could almost be enjoyable.  Nothing close to the sound an angelic garrison made, but alluring in its own way. 

Castiel waited until the last of the heavy consistency landed and settled somewhat before letting out the second call.  Instantly the garrisons of his demons surged forwards, prepared for scrambling over spikes and so wearing armor or padding of any type that they could get.  Some of Paimon's garrison held up the clouds again, and the remained either stationed themselves around Castiel or joined the fighting.  Castiel himself didn't join in, instead hovering and watching the slaughter unfold. 

And it was a slaughter, no doubt about that.  Everywhere the rebels were dying or being put through agonizing torment.  As he watched, a group of demons overpowered a larger group of rebels and threw them down into a brick surrounded cylinder now filled with spiked ball bearings, and from the burning and bubbling of their skin it looked like the demons had also sent electricity through them.  Another group was being mashed into a bronze bull filled with spikes and then closed tight around them, turning red hot as a fire was lit underneath.  Some demons started stripping a bunch of rebels and weighing them down on Trojan horses, laughing at their screams as they were split open.  A few other demons brought out iron chairs to pierce rebels on, and Castiel knew the battle was won.  Most of the rebels were blinded, scorched from Castiel’s grace and now being impaled, shredded, skinned and or burnt.  If his demons were being allowed to leave to get more torture instruments and bring them in, then that was the last sign of their victory.  Castiel just hovered there for a while, watching the suffering in progress.  Truly enchanting, he decided.

_"We're finished here.  Rebels are dead or dying"_ Castiel reported.  He could feel Paimon’s glee and Lucifer’s fury

_"You feel mesmerized Cas, what's up?”_ Lucifer asked curiously, and Castiel paused, uncertain of how he wanted to respond.  Then again, this _was_ Lucifer, he wouldn’t be disgusted

_"I don't know.  It's just so different, how demons react to everything.  The pleasure they can find in causing pain, and the multitude of ways that they do so.  It’s incredibly different from heaven, fascinating."_ Castiel was itching for something, though he didn’t know what.  He wanted Lucifer there, and he wanted he stay here and watch more of the torturing.  He _wanted_ , and It was really confusing. _“Are you almost finished?”_

_"You find torture fascinating, and your song is tinged with arousal.  Fucking sadistic little angel."_ Paimon sent with amusement before Lucifer could answer _"You know Lucifer, we may just have to share."_

_“Cas man!  You do remember freaking out at that brothel right?  Guess you’re just kinkier than I took you for.”_ Lucifer laughed, but before Castiel could protest or question Paimon’s statement about sharing, Lucifer continued.  “ _I’ll be finished up in a bit.  Paimon, how you doing?”_

_“You’re one to talk about kinks Lucifer, you’ve got tons of them”_ Paimon sent cheekily before answering. _“And I can leave now, we’re almost finished.”_

_“I never said anything against them!”_ Lucifer protested.

Not wanting to hear more and ignoring the distraught feeling growing in his chest, Castiel spoke again _“What should I do now?”_

_“Want to meet up with Paimon back at my house? We already had our little meeting with Gabriel and quick talk with Sam, I figure hell’s garrison should meet up”_ Lucifer answered, ignoring Paimon’s laugh at the name. _“Do you remember where it is Cas?  The house’ll accept you, so you can go right ahead.”_

_“Alright.”_ Castiel responded, giving one last glance at the mass of screaming rebels and soul below him before turning to go. _“I’m on my way.”_

_  
_


	10. We Shall Bond Over Completely Normal Things

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel and Paimon bond while waiting for Lucifer and their question time soon dissolves into conversation. And the mission is marked as a success.

Upon landing _,_ Paimon was surprised to see Castiel already in Lucifer’s house, standing in front of the motel window in the bedroom and not acknowledging Paimon’s presence, though he was sure Castiel knew Paimon was there.  The seraph was such a funny little puzzle, Paimon thought, and one he definitely wanted to explore.  Castiel was fascinated by torture, fine with finding out his charge was the devil and commanded demons in hell like he did it every day yet from what Lucifer had said, Castiel was still loyal to Father and loved his brothers.  It was incredibly odd, kicked out of heaven, flying around in hell, getting aroused by torture and he was still completely an angel, albeit an independent one.  His grace was pure as ever, unlike Lucifer’s with its black taint, it was white with the slightest hint of blue, but then again, that might change if the seraph got into torture himself.

Castiel belonged to Lucifer, Paimon knew that, but with certain crucial emotions missing from his range, he had always been terrible at differentiating the ‘too far’ line.  Not that he wanted to steal Castiel from Lucifer, if anything he wanted both of them, though the difference between kinds of relationships meant nothing to Paimon, so he could be wrong.  He knew he would unintentionally be extremely tactile as he always was, and he knew he wanted to be friends with Castiel, maybe as good as he was with Lucifer, though he didn’t think he’d ever be loyal to someone else like he was to the devil.  Other than that, he really had no idea even if he wanted.

First things first, Paimon thought, a conversation might give some answers.  Throwing himself down on the bed, Paimon crossed his legs and leaned back on his hands before finally greeting Castiel with a drawl.  “Mornin’.’”

“Morning?  How do you tell time down here?”  Castiel asked, turning to face Paimon and sounding absolutely serious “When Lucifer and I arrived it was early afternoon on earth.”

“Mornin’s for greetin’s and nights for byes” Paimon grinned at the slightly confused look on Castiel’s face, but moved on before the useless topic could be discussed more. “Si’down.  Now that neither of us is dying or running around, I think we should actually have a conversation.  Plus I have some questions.”

Castiel looked rightfully wary at that, but moved over to sit stiffly on the bed.  “Questions about what?”

Paimon snorted at the way Castiel was sitting and muttered a warning not to smite him and to make like a ragdoll before attempting to rearrange the seraph.  He grabbed Castiel’s closest leg, pulled it up on the bed, grabbed the other one and pulled that up too as he pushed on Castiel’s left shoulder, turning him around to face Paimon.  When he was satisfied with the way Castiel was sitting and had moved forwards so their knees were touching, Paimon looked up at Castiel’s face and burst into laughter.  The seraph looked a mix between completely bewildered and on guard, not sure what to do.  Evidently he hadn’t been forewarned of Paimon’s affectionate nature.  Ah well, he’d figure it out soon enough.

“Just relax and see how much better that is.  Honestly, you were making me feel crude with the stuffy way you sit.  I’m really not going to bite unless you ask.”  Unable to resist throwing in one more comment, Paimon put on a cheeky grin and ran his eyes over the seraph, tilting his head in petty mockery “And underdressed.  I definitely feel underdressed.  You could at least change the suit if you still wanted to wear the trench coat, even Lucifer doesn’t wear a suit.  I feel like a deviant criminal”

“I was unaware I needed to dress to your standards” Castiel replied somewhat frostily and Paimon took a mental step back.  Right, don’t annoy people until they know that practically every second statement is just automatic and not always meant to be insulting.

“Sorry, I’m normally like that.  I was just poking fun.”  Paimon clarified and Castiel relaxed somewhat “For compensation you can ask the first question, ‘bout anything really.”

“We’re trading answers then” Castiel asked, though it was probably more of a statement and by the curious smile growing on his face, Paimon probably wouldn’t like the question.  “Why did you follow Lucifer to hell?”

Paimon barely caught himself from gaping.  Okay then, guess they were going straight into the deep questions.  Biting his lip he thought for a moment about how to answer, it was a big question and he wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that would be satisfying.  “Because he’s Lucifer.  I mean, I know that isn’t a real answer, but it’s true.  He’s the Morning Star himself, and the only being I feel complete loyalty to other than the Father.  When the Fall happened there wasn’t even a question of whether or not I would fight with Lucifer, I knew I would from the moment discord first rang through the host.  I knew what he was like and did it anyways.  Before he became human he had no patience for failures and though I was the only one he would actually call a friend, I knew that he would leave me the moment I fucked up.  Fell with him anyways.

“I always knew it was bound to happen but I never considered the idea of fighting against him.”  Paimon shrugged, surprised to find that even with the years of suffering that followed his choice, he didn’t have to fake nonchalance about the subject.  “I’ve never regretted it.”

“You’re still loyal to our Father?”  Paimon jerked his head up at Castiel’s surprised question and this time did gape.  That’s what the seraph got from his answer?  Another question he was absolutely not going to answer, it had far too much baggage that he didn’t want to poke at even with a ten foot pole.

“No way Castiel.  It’s my turn and you are not allowed to ask that” Paimon asserted with a frown

Immediately Castiel’s eyes widened and he backtracked, “Of course, I apologize, it just surprised me.  Go ahead”

Paimon offered only a brief nod in acknowledgement.  He sat up straighter, started to tap his fingers on his knee and then met Castiel’s eyes.  “Why do you find torture fascinating?”

“Because it’s so different and precise” To Paimon’s surprise the answer was immediate, Castiel had evidently put quite a bit of thought into it.  Made sense, Paimon supposed, an angel finds they like something in hell, they’re bound to question why.  “Before Lucifer rose and when the angels saw I was getting too close to Dean, they dragged me back to heaven and tortured me, calling it re-education.  They plucked my feathers, fed me demon blood and burnt away at my grace with holy oil, but none of them enjoyed it or got imaginative with it like they do in hell.

“Well, I think Zachariah did, but to all the others it was just duty” Castiel amended and Paimon reached out, gripping Castiel’s shoulder to offer comfort, pleased when Castiel leaned in slightly. 

Though the seraphs poker face was unbelievable, Paimon could hear the distress in Castiel’s song and mentally cursed the angels who had done that to him.  Even during the Fall when interrogating angels in hell the fallen angels had hesitated to use demon’s blood and lit holy oil.  Seemed like heaven had grown worse in Paimon’s absence, though knowing Lucifer, he doubted Zachariah was still alive. 

Castiel nodded in thanks and continued, steering away from the emotional side of his answer.  “Seeing torture in hell is so different.  All the demons enjoy it, researching and experimenting on the best and most artistic ways to cause pain.  It’s so different from my experiences in heaven where they just used brute pain without any precision.  The better someone is at torture, the more alluring their work is, I want to know how and where it works.  I even thought about it some, and I think I would like to watch Lucifer torture someone.  He’s told me a little about it, being both the devil as an archangel and Alastair’s apprentice as a human, and I already know he’s good at it.  Torture’s just such an integral part of all this, and with me being in hell more often I want to learn about that”

Castiel looked guilty suddenly, as if he had said something he wasn’t supposed to, and Paimon rushed to reassure him.  “I get it.  For me it was more fun than intriguing, but I completely get it.  Also, I think you should talk to Lucifer ‘bout that.  I’m positive he wouldn’t be averse to taking you along sometime, throw in some pie and it’d be everything he loves in a great big funfest.  Hey, who knows, maybe you guys’ll finally fuck afterwards, torture always get emotions running high”

“What?”  Castiel had relaxed during his assurance, but at this last statement he stiffened again. 

“Well I know Lucifer’s emotionally constipated, but—oh right.  Angel.”  Paimon grinned.  Lucifer was emotionally stunted because of the human-monsters from when he was a human and the whole mess with falling, and Castiel was an angel so completely sheltered by heaven.  “Lucifer loves pie, torturing souls and you.  And his car, though I haven’t actually met her yet.  And torture’s a _really_ fun activity.”

“But I thought—” Castiel cut himself off to tilt his head at Paimon and narrow his eyes.   “Aren’t you two together?”

“Nope, I’m just very tactile and he’s just learned to deal with me.  I feel love as loyalty, can’t really make an emotional connection past that.  Plus, you two would be so cute together!”  Paimon smirked at the last comment, if Lucifer had been there he would’ve never gotten away with it.  There had been assumptions about him and Lucifer in the past, it was nothing new or offensive.

“Oh” Castiel said softly, and for the first time during their conversation he was the first to look away.  “I see”

“Not even kidding. Castiel, you better go for it, ‘cause if you wait for Lucifer it’ll be years, and if you ever tell him about this conversation he’ll call us hopeless and throw in the towel.”  Paimon advised, pausing before adding an amendment.  “Probably only literally though.  He’d never really give up on us, but he might soak the towel in something sticky first just to be mean”

“Why would Lucifer throw a towel at either one of us?” Castiel asked in confusion, his head tilting even further to the side so that it actually came to rest on Paimon’s hand which was still on the seraphs shoulder.  At this Paimon couldn’t suppress a giggle that would definitely have had Lucifer throwing in the towel if he wouldn’t have already

“One of these days you’re going to get really confused and break your neck” He joked, pushing Castiel’s head back up with his thumb. “It’s a human saying, not really sure what it means, think it’s like giving up.  But hey, between the two of us we should be able to figure it out.”

 

~*~

 

The first thought that ran through Lucifer's head upon entering his room was that someone was possessed.  This thought was quickly discarded, as everyone in the room was indeed possessed, which was not new information.  This was awesome sure, but even so, Lucifer was debating on bringing out the holy water and angel blades just to check. 

Paimon and Cas were sitting face to face on the bed, knees touching.  Paimon was being his usual tactile self by practically breathing the same air as the seraph, his hand on Cas’ shoulder and leaning forwards, so that was nothing new.  The weird part was that Cas just took it, both of them were completely engrossed in their conversation and ignoring their positioning, Cas completely comfortable with an archdemon half-draped over him.  Lucifer suspected that if he didn't already love and know both of them he would be feeling jealous, but as it was he felt nothing of the like.  It would be awesome if they could get along, he knew Gabriel and Paimon would get along, but he hadn't thought Cas would be this okay with the archdemon.  Judging from the scene in front of Lucifer however, he thought that maybe Paimon could weasel his way into all of the different parts of his family just as Cas had.  Sam would be a bigger issue, but he had trusted Ruby, so he might come around.  Lucifer was actually quite pleased about this change in events, but nevertheless, decided to announce his presence by having some fun.

"So should I get the two of you a room?  I'm sure Hell can rustle up another motel room if that's your thing, ‘cause I really don’t want you using mine" Lucifer grinned as they both whipped around in shock, having been completely engrossed.  Paimon seemed to realize just how tactile he was being and removed his hand, offering up a slightly guilty smile while Cas’ eyes widened and he looked at the floor like a caught out school boy

"Make sure to actually put some thought into it" Paimon suggested, pulling up his serious face that he was actually terrible at. "I don't know how you stand to live in this dump, but I want to choose the rug if I'm getting one."

“Hey now, no need to be mean. You’re lucky I didn’t go with shag carpet here, ‘cause I can tell you many stories of rooms that haven’t changed _or_ been cleaned since the 70’s.”  Lucifer threatened

“More often than not I’ve flown to Lucifer’s motel rooms and felt like levitating or going blind just to save myself from the décor.  It’s truly hideous” Cas added, looking back up at Paimon and giving a serious nod, grinning when his comment broke Paimon’s terrible poker face into laughter

“Alright, alright!” Paimon gasped and Lucifer had the stray thought of wondering whether the archdemon was stoned.  Probably, violence always made Paimon more emotional, wherever on his lacking spectrum.  “I plead mercy!  Do not bestow the horrors of the shag carpet and lava lamps upon me”

“I’ll think about it.  But I’m warning you, ever step out of line and I’m changing every carpet in hell” Lucifer chuckled.  Oh the theatrics of life.  “But anyways.  It’s good to see you guys bonding, cause I’m probably going to have to talk to someone upstairs eventually and you’ll need to spend a lot more time together.  Doubt that with all the noise hell’s been making that Mikey and the other angels will leave us alone.”

Cas nodded slowly, twisting around to fully face Lucifer.  “Yes, and even if he doesn’t, Raphael won’t be so reserved.  He had quite a bit to say about advancing the apocalypse.”

Lucifer froze, his mind moving miles at a time and his previous light mood disappearing.  Archangels never talked to the rank Castiel had been before his upgrade, so he cautiously ventured, “Raphael’s the one who smote you?”

“Yes” Cas nodded, oblivious to the way Paimon also tensed, meeting Lucifer’s eyes and a silent acknowledgment running between them.  “Him and Michael are the ones most working towards it, Zachariah was too, but he’s dead, and I’m not really sure who else.”

“Do you know any other angels who might help us stop it?”  Paimon asked, drawing Cas’ attention away from Lucifer, who he had finally noticed was almost thrumming with restless energy, his protective streak kicking in tenfold at the memory of Cas’ death.  Yes, Raphael would definitely pay for what he had done, but it was best to wait.  Cas would be upset, so he couldn’t know

“I think so, there are a few who might still listen to me.”  Castiel speculated, “I could go and ask, I can talk to most of them without anyone else noticing.” 

“That’d be awesome” Lucifer agreed, forcing himself to relax and push the whole Raphael thing aside.   “You’d better keep yourself alive though.”

Cas smiled, his blue gaze meeting Lucifer’s green one.  “I will.”


	11. Everyone’s a Demon (Those Who Aren’t, Are The Devil)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer is totally not worrying over Castiel when he receives a phone call from his human brother. Seems someone thought that he was being slow, and decided to just do the apocalypse job themselves

Lucifer definitely wasn’t worrying.  Or being defensive, overprotective, mother-henning or anything of the like.  And he certainly hadn’t decided to wander around earth checking on demons to make sure they were following his new rules because it wasn’t an urgent job and he could leave at any time.  He hadn’t actually let any of the demons know he was checking on them either, and that was not cause he might have to leave suddenly.  Furthermore, none of his actions had anything to do with the fact that Cas had gone to meet up with angels that wanted to kill him.  They also had nothing to do with Lucifer recently finding out who smote Cas and being overprotective of the seraph.  Nothing whatsoever.  Which is why Lucifer totally didn’t jump and have a mini heart attack when his phone vibrated in his pocket. 

The name Sam on the caller ID had him stunned for a few seconds and no, his middle name wasn’t denial, and no, he hadn’t forgotten that Cas would’ve used garrison radio to contact him.

“Sam” He greeted, flicking open the phone and bringing to his ear

“What the hell are you doing?”  Sam’s voice was cold and fuming from the other side, and Lucifer froze in shock

“Umm, what?”  He asked, completely thrown for a loop

There was an incredulous snort from the other side of the phone followed by, “Don’t give me that innocent act, I’m talking about War!”

“What about War?”  Lucifer asked, cocking his head to the side and listening closely, there was shouting in the background “Dude, where are you?”

“You said you didn’t want this apocalypse, so why did you send out War?”  Sam hissed angrily, and was that Jo Lucifer could hear in the background?

“I didn’t do anything with War” Lucifer replied shortly, an uneasy feeling growing, “Now where are you?”

“Well if you didn’t then who the hell did?  ‘Because he’s a horseman, and he’s up and kicking” Sam retorted, once again completely ignoring Lucifer’s question

Lucifer closed his eyes for a second and took a deep breath.  He hadn’t summoned any of the horsemen, not even Death, so it couldn’t be War.  That would mean that someone else was going around raising horsemen, and the only ones who could do that were angels, who wouldn’t advance the apocalypse unless they knew Lucifer wasn’t going to.  Very slowly he repeated, “Where are you?”

“You don’t know?  You brought the bastard here, you should be able to figure it out.”  Sam responded.  Lucifer opened his mouth to speak, but then there was a yelling of ‘black eyed-bitch’ from the other side, and Sam cursed and hung up.  For a second Lucifer just glared angrily at the phone, but then he burst into motion, calling the service provider and claiming he lost his phone, quickly getting a location though it seemed to take years.  He flew to the location he was given instantly, landing right next to a turned over car and ducking down so as not to be seen, not even thinking as he automatically hid his angelic nature.  Listening, he realized he could feel the presence of War.  Well shit.

“Dean?”  A female voice asked and he whipped around, cursing the fact that he hadn’t been paying attention to anyone but War

“Oh hey Ellen” Lucifer greeted awkwardly, unsure of how much Sam had told her, the shotgun in his face could be either because he was the devil or because she was a hunter.  Paranoia saved lives

“Got any silver?  And anything to prove you aren’t a demon?”  Ellen asked, and Lucifer relaxed somewhat.  Good, she just thought he was a shifter.  He nodded and reached carefully into his jacket pocket, slowly pulling out a silver blade he summoned there.  It wasn’t his angel blade, but then again that would probably be a bit suspicious, and while rock salt and bullets might only be irritants, it’d be really hard to convince her he wasn’t some creature when they didn’t really affect him.  Even more so considering he was ‘some creature’, hence, it was best to be on the safe side of things.  He liked Ellen and hoped he could keep his identity a secret as long as possible.

“Alright, you got any holy water?  I used up my last bit” He asked and lied, making sure to let her see him draw the blade through his arm, releasing a small flow of blood.  She nodded, kept the gun trained on him and tossed over a plastic water bottle.  He couldn’t stop himself from laughing as he took a swig.  “Really Ellen?  How long has this thing been sitting in the sun, it’s practically falling apart”

“Whole town’s possessed, had to make do with what we had” She answered, lowering the gun and striding up to him.  Lucifer barely managed to go with the slap as she hit him, surprised by the unexpected behavior and not wanting to cause her harm “Now why the hell didn’t you say you were resurrected, and why didn’t Sam mention anything?”

“Sam’s here?”  Lucifer asked, then winced.  There went his plan to say he had just been slow catching up to his brother. “Uh, Sorry.  Promise next time I’ll send a postcard”

“You didn’t know?”  Ellen asked, once again getting suspicious and Lucifer scrambled for something to say.  He was the father of lies damn it!  He should be a whole heck of a lot quicker than this.

“We had a disagreement, went our separate ways for a while.  I was just passing through when I noticed the lovely scenery and black eyes”  Lucifer explained, purposefully taking his gaze off of Ellen and casting it around, waving at the wreckage “So the whole towns full of demons?”

“Yup, there’s a bunch of them destroying everything.  Rufus, Jo and Sam are here and back at a police station we’ve set up in.  Come on” Ellen said, moving and motioning for him to go with.  They walked for almost two blocks as Ellen updated Lucifer on the situation.  Apparently there were demons everywhere, possessing people with tattoos and wreaking havoc, defying laws of hunterness.  The general signs of War.  Make hunters believe everyone is a demon so they attack each other. 

As they got closer to the station, Lucifer could feel Wars call strengthen, and the angelic voice in his head started to outweigh the human one and his worry for Castiel lessened to the certainty that if anyone tried anything he’d kill them.  And why was he so intent on stopping this apocalypse again?  Oh ya, ‘cause Earth’s nice and for Castiel, Sam and Bobby.  None of them wanted the apocalypse, and they were family.  But then again, family had kicked Lucifer out before, thrown him down to hell to rot for millennia, Sam seemed pretty quick to blame Lucifer even after all his mistakes

He was just following this dangerous path when Ellen yelled out their arrival and pushed open the police station door with a bang, startling Lucifer out of his reverie.  Well crap, Lucifer thought, quickly opening himself fully to garrison radio and concentrating on Castiel’s notes, they were nervous but pleased with little fear, grounding Lucifer back to reason. 

“What the hell is _he_ doing here?” Sam yelped as soon as he saw Lucifer, and the archangel was pretty sure if Sam hadn’t been tied down he would’ve gone right ahead and tried to kill Lucifer.  Sam already thought Lucifer had released War, so the horseman’s impact would definitely not bode well.

“You know, I’ve noticed that you’ve been hanging up on me quite frequently Sam” Lucifer said, looking around the station and assessing the situation.  Sam was tied up a chair—evidently they thought he was a demon—and Jo and Rufus had come out to greet Lucifer and Ellen, both of them looking pissed.  Behind them all were about eight civilians in varying stages of bindings and apparent demonicness.  A sexual quip instantly flashed through Lucifer’s mind about that, but before he could make it Sam was speaking again.

“You guys have to get away from him!  That’s Lucifer!  He’s the one who brought War here” Sam snarled, struggling in the ropes. 

“He’s possessed” Jo explained, glaring at the side of Sam’s head and not even taking into account what he had said.  “Don’t know how the demon got into him, or what changed considering the demons new usual weird behavior of only possessing bastards, but it’s definitely there somehow.”

“What the hell are you talking about?  And War as in the horseman?”  Ellen asked, moving away from Lucifer, though she didn’t bring her gun up.  They’d probably tied Sam up while she was out, Lucifer thought distantly, then decided to mostly ignore the hunters and look for War, the quicker he was taken care of, the quicker Lucifer could leave without being caught out.

“I’m serious guys!  He’s the fucking devil!”  Sam hissed, managing somehow to still seem dangerous though he was tied to a chair.  Lucifer tilted his head at Sam for a second, pausing.

“You have some blood on your face” He noted, fury rising “How many demons did you drain this time?”

“I didn’t” Sam’s eyes widened, and for a second he was normal again, but then the anger was back. “That’s Lucifer, get away from him!  He caused all this, that’s why we weren’t hunting together, ‘Cause he’s possessing Dean”

Lucifer had lost track of the amount of times he had been interrupted that day alone, but again his sarcastic reply was cut off by a gunshot and he lost Cas’ song, tuning out garrison radio.  Glancing down, he frowned at the new hole in his shirt, some red spreading out from it, but healing quickly enough that it didn’t drip.

“Shit, you should be dead” Rufus sputtered and Lucifer glared at him.  Oh no, that was not cool.  You don’t just shoot someone with real bullets ‘because they _might_ be possessed.  That was terrible hunter etiquette and manners in general.  A shattering noise brought Lucifer back to himself, and he realized the lights had dimmed and everything made of glass had shattered.  Everyone looked horrified, trying to back away, the hunters still brandishing their guns and the civilians attempting to scramble into the corner.  War might encourage itself, but with hopeless causes it was either fight or flight.  The hunters were following the latter instinct at the moment, but that would soon change.

 Restoring the lighting, he set himself to finding War, ignoring the hunters as the fight instincts set in and bullets and accusations were sent his way.  He could feel the most violence from the people at the back, so directed his attention there, moving around the hunters so he still had all of them in his sight, but getting closer to where War was.  The attempts at stopping him increased as the hunters protective natures kicked in, and Lucifer raised his hand, releasing his grace and pushing the hunter up against walls.

“Let us go”  Jo hissed, struggling and bringing up her gun to get off one more shot before Lucifer ripped it from her hands with his grace.  Rufus started to recite an exorcism and Lucifer rolled his eyes.  Ya, like demon exorcisms’ would work on an archangel.

“It’s really fucking hard to concentrate when you’re shooting me” He muttered and briefly entertained the idea of just gagging them all before realizing that wasn’t even a question.  With War’s influence he needed as little things to distract him as he could, or he’d quickly plummet back into that heartless devil he’d been before Dean.  Quickly stuffing their mouths full of grace, Lucifer returned to searching, quickly picking out the horseman, nicely dressed up in a vessel with slaughter in his eyes.  “War”

The horseman smirked, letting go of all human pretence and standing, ignoring the people as they scrambled away from him, their fear sent heavy and oppressive.  “Lucifer.  You know, we were all quite disappointed to find out you had gone soft.  There we were, all prepared for you to let us out, never thought you’d be one to shy away from a fight”

Violence tore through the room as War sent out a pulse like wave of his influence, causing the civilians to turn on each other, tearing with teeth and nails and landing punches.  Lucifer knew War was just trying to distract and provoke him, but unfortunately it was working, his human voice growing dimmer.  The humans screeching was infuriating, drowning out Cas’ song with their cries and wails.  One of the pathetic little things launched itself at Lucifer and he flicked his finger at it before it reached him, slamming it back up against the wall.  More of the humans turned his way and started attacking, and Lucifer only dimly realized War was purposefully sending them at him, no doubt thinking he’d hesitate in killing them and War’d be able to get away. 

His ties on the hunters were being pressed against as they also struggled, and for a second fury blinded him, turning the world red.  His wings tore free from their confinement in an almost feral show of authority and force as his angelic side won out.  The temperature in the room instantly dropped, cracking the thin skin of the humans as Lucifer extended multiple pairs of his wings into the physical dimension.  They were huge, with small silvery grey feathers covering the bone arcs and ending in a black talon on each wing, made for tearing and ripping.  Even the feathers themselves could be used as weapons, long razor sharp blades of freezing ice.   His wingspan easily eclipsed the length of the room so he wasn’t able to extend them to their full lengths, but just their presence was slowly killing the nuisances curled on the floor in front of him.  Both the nuisances and War were still there though, being quite irritating, so Lucifer simply snapped his fingers as he extended more than half of his grace, and then they weren’t.  

Sanity returned to Lucifer in a split-second, and it was all he could do to keep an impassive face as he saw Sam and the hunters nearly blue from the cold of his wings, their faces horrified.  Forcing himself to remain emotionless, he pulled his wings back into hiding and walked forwards through the puddle of blood that used to be eleven humans and a horseman, stopping when he got to where War had been standing.  He leaned down and carefully pulled the horseman’s ring from the blood, releasing the grace holding the hunters as he stood back up and flicked the ring clean.  The hunters all stayed pressed up against the walls, a mixture of terror, stubbornness and horror permeating in the air.  He examined each one of them, running grace enhanced eyes over them to make sure he hadn’t caused any permanent damage with his wings.  None of them spoke, still too shaken up from the show of power, but they weren’t harmed so much that they couldn’t recover.  He longed to just heal them, but knew they would accept it from the devil, so he reluctantly turned to Sam.

Logically Lucifer knew that none of this had been Sam’s fault, but he couldn’t shake off his anger.  If Sam had kept quiet about who Lucifer was longer, then none of them would’ve been so affected by War’s influence.  The remains of fury from War still thrummed in Lucifer’s veins, and he could feel concern practically oozing from both Castiel and Paimon. His hands itched to hold a blade, to cause suffering instead of the quick deaths given to the people.  Oh fuck, he had killed seven innocents. His human side was drowning in shame and self-loathing, completely horrified at what he had done to his baby brother, Jo and Ellen.  The two sides were fighting again like they hadn’t since he fixed up hell, and he felt like he was going to explode.

“I’m going to ask Gabriel to look after you.  Next time you need help, you go to him” Lucifer said coldly, tossing the ring into Sam’s lap.  With one last glance around the room and at the hunters he had so callously subjected to the searing ice of his grace, Lucifer spread his wings and took off.  The first thing he needed to do was make a request to his other brother, and then there were a few souls in hell he _really_ wanted to pay a visit.


	12. Hang Free Will Around My Neck Like A Noose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel flies through the place between before going back to earth. Once there he starts summoning angels and sees a lot of familiar faces. Lucifer will just have to deal with his new garrison.

Castiel flitted away from hell, sweeping across the place between.  He had only flown through it once before as a seraph, and then he hadn’t had time to linger.  Even now it wasn’t safe for him to be spending so much time there, but it felt wonderful.  Only the extremely powerful could enter the place between on their own, and now Castiel fit that class.  Before now he had only ever been quickly flown through by Paimon, Lucifer or his garrison leader back when Castiel pulled Dean from hell.  Being able to actually stall and stay in the place between for a while meant he was also able to look around. 

What should’ve been air was liquid, somehow managing to both be thick and syrupy and thin and airy, merely sliding over his wings though it seemed like it should stick.  And the colors were dazzling, bursts of color shining like galaxies against a backdrop of grey-scale.  There wasn’t so much a floor as a condensing of the liquid air, different places and levels that made no sense, sometimes jutting out like spires and sometimes bumpy and smooth.  Everything was colored in the same changing color scheme, but it was a beautiful and a fun challenging to fly through without hitting anything.

A burst of annoyance from Lucifer brought Castiel back to the present, and he quickly left the place between, landing on earth and flying around, gathering up ingredients and a container for a summoning spell.  This one wouldn’t force angels to appear, just nudge them repeatedly with the request until they had no choice in the matter.  Finishing by pouring a small amount of holy oil in the bowl and rattling off a quick incantation, Castiel completed the spell and stepped back to wait.   It didn’t take long before there was the sound of wings and an angel appeared in front of Castiel, holding only a glass of alcohol, but Castiel knew he was by no means unarmed.

“Well this is different Cassie” the angel drawled, his voice wary “Nice wings”

“Thank you Balthazar” Castiel replied.  Balthazar had fought with Castiel and Uriel before Uriel tried to kill Castiel and Castiel rebelled, he could probably be trusted to help now as he was one of the most likely angels to follow in Castiel’s footsteps.

“Well I knew you’d rebelled, but I would’ve never thought you’d join up with Lucifer” Balthazar glared, unable to hide the wounded betrayal in his eyes.  Castiel knew that Balthazar didn’t want the world to end, he was one of the angels who fell into human vices, though not as deeply as Gabriel.  As far as Castiel knew now though, the other angel was still part of the Host

“Lucifer isn’t continuing the apocalypse, he became Dean and changed his mind.  We want your help” Castiel stepped forwards, “Look at my grace, I’ll show you”

Sorting through his mind, Castiel offered up parts of memories of Lucifer when Paimon had saved Castiel and his explanations then, certain parts of the talk with Gabriel and then the conversation in which Castiel had offered to talk to some other angels about helping them.  Balthazar slowly reached out with his own grace, and Castiel made sure to be as unthreatening as possible.  He wasn’t foolish enough to think the other angel hadn’t brought a stolen Weapon of God to this meeting, especially since Castiel was now a seraph.  Balthazar finished with the memories quickly, stepping back and contemplating Castiel as he took a sip of his drink. 

“Lucifer turned you into a seraph and now you’re in his garrison” Balthazar mused, then smirked “You’re scent marked enough that I can’t tell if you’ve finally decided to experience the lovely human pass time of shagging or if it’s just his grace”

Castiel’s eyes widened at the attempted diversion and he flicked his eyes away, silently lamenting the fact that he hadn’t prepared enough for this meeting with Balthazar beforehand.  “What is your point?”

Balthazar laughed in response, changing the topic back and ignoring Castiel’s question.  “I won’t help Lucifer.  I’ll help you if you really need it, but other than that I don’t want to be involved.  Since you asked me I’m sure you’ve figured out I plan to leave heaven and  would prefer earth to still be here when I do.  Just for kicks.”

Castiel smiled, relaxing slightly.  He knew better than to think Balthazar would do much without persuasion, but he was glad to have the other angel on his side.  Balthazar was far too involved with humanity to want to stay in heaven for long. “Thank you Balthazar.  I won’t ask you do anything until we really need it, I’m just getting help now for the inevitable time when heaven tries to force their apocalypse.  You’ve always been good at stealing from their weapons room.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment coming from you.  If the Host finds out I’m helping you, I’ll be put right in their crosshairs, so can you assure me I won’t have any of hells denizens to worry about either?” Balthazar requested, once again proving his tendency to think of self-survival above all else.  It did make sense to get confirmed though.

“No one from hell will be after you” Castiel promised, hesitating before phrasing his next question as a statement.  Dean had made requests into passing comments sometimes, so Castiel decided to do so too “If you happened to obtain a few Weapons of God before leaving heaven, I believe they would be quite useful.  I’m sure you and Lucifer could come to an agreement that benefits you both.  And if you want more protection, you can join my garrison”

Balthazar looked slightly surprised at this, and Castiel allowed himself a small burst of pride.  He had been getting better at understanding and conducting business since having to deal with demons in hell.  They were always looking for a way to manipulate things to profit them, though not all could actually do so and have it work.  Balthazar promised to think about it and left without any further words, and Castiel tried to understand Dean and Sam’s old annoyance over his own lack of pleasantries, but could find nothing irritating about the lack of greetings and goodbyes.  Then again, Castiel thought, reminiscing back on conversations with Lucifer recently, it was probably just a human thing. 

Running again through the list in his mind, Castiel decided to speak with Rachel next.  He had been her superior up until his rebellion, and would consider her one of his friends, though not under human standards.  Her death would be distressing, and her life was both pleasant and useful.  She could probably be gotten to see the error of heavens judgment, and with the knowledge that God was no longer ‘running the show’, he should be able to convince her to help him with getting angels of humanities side.  As Lucifer had once put it, joining Team Free Will and while Lucifer had shown no signs of particularly caring for his heavenly brothers, Castiel wanted to protect as many as he could.  Getting them away from Michael and Raphael’s plans would be an intelligent first step.  As he had offered to Balthazar, Castiel might even ask Lucifer about creating his own garrison.  Paimon had many demon garrisons under his control  yet was still in Lucifer’s, and Castiel already knew how to build his own garrison from the time after Anneal fell.  He had had to do it then while remaining in the higher garrison of other angels sharing his position, he could do it now while staying in Lucifer’s garrison.  As a seraph he wouldn’t even need assistance to create one.

Using his grace to clean out the bowl from the previous summoning, Castiel redid the entire process, this time using Rachel’s name in place of Balthazar’s for the audible part of the spell.  Rachel was even quicker to arrive than Balthazar, her arrival was heralded by the ring of a drawn sword.  Unsurprised by this violent greeting, Castiel slid his own sword out and caught her strike on the blade, pushing back and throwing her off as she faltered in surprise at the change in his grace.  Wanting to finish this as quickly as possible so he didn’t have to harm her, Castiel’s next blow was struck with the intention of disarming her.  Rachel deflected it, but under a minute later and her sword was clattering to the ground

“Wait Rachel, just listen” Castiel requested, using his grace to keep her in place as she spread her wings to flee. 

Resignation crossed her face but she still stood defiantly, narrowing her eyes as she answered.  “They say a demon saved you after you rebelled for the humans, and now you feel like Lucifer.  Have you actually rebelled against our Father and joined with him?”

“I haven’t gone against Father.  Heavens orders no longer come from Him, He left.  I’m trying to stop the apocalypse, Lucifer’s working on that too, so that’s the only reason I’m working with him.” Castiel explained, ignoring the knowledge that that wasn’t the only reason he was working with Lucifer.  Castiel could deny it all he wanted, but even if Dean had been Lucifer and had decided to continue the apocalypse, Castiel would’ve followed him down to hell.  He’d already fallen to earth for the hunter, falling to hell wouldn’t have been such an improbable next step

“Where is Father?” Rachel asked, her vessel steady, but her unease betrayed but a slight fluttering in her bound wings. 

“I don’t know where He’s gone.  Zachariah said that He ‘left the building’.” Only after Rachel made a confused face did Castiel notice he had used air quotes, and he immediately dropped his hands.  “Michael and Raphael have been orchestrating the apocalypse; our Father wouldn’t want His creations destroyed.”

Rachel didn’t reply, looking lost and uncertain.  Castiel could sympathize, when he has figured out Father was gone, he was devastated.  “Lucifer’s trying to help save the earth and all of Father’s creations.  Will you help us? I’ll show you some of our discussions about it.”

Castiel held back from showing her his memories though, waiting for her acceptance.  Rachel tilted her head, looking confused. “Are you suggesting free will or is this an order?”

He paused at that, uncertain of how to answer. “I’m asking you.  We should all have free will, angels and you included.”

“But what should I do with my free will?” Rachel asked, seeming to draw in slightly. “If Father is no longer giving commands shouldn’t we look to Michael?”

“No.  Michael is planning on killing Father’s creations.  He wouldn’t want them all to be destroyed.”  Castiel pressed, “Help us keep them alive”

Rachel wavered, “Can you show me then?”

Castiel nodded, smiling softly.  He moved forwards and pressed his fingers to her temple, letting the memories flow into her grace.  He stepped back as soon as they were finished replaying and watched Rachel’s wings, cataloging the different emotions warring through them.

“If I release you, will you stay here?”  Castiel ventured, wanting to give her a moment to think.

Rachel nodded and Castiel let his grace unwind from around her wings, letting her stretch them then fold them tightly against her back.   Slowly she asked, “Are you in Lucifer’s garrison?”

“Yes” Castiel answered, making up his mind and deciding that Lucifer could just deal with it. “I will make my own garrison again though; I was hoping you would take the same position you held in it before I left heaven.”

Once again she seemed to steel herself, but then gave one firm nod, her wings puffing in both delight and anxiety at this use of free will. “I would be honored to rejoin your garrison.  Do you want me to go around and speak with other angels who were under your command?  I doubt you have time for everyone”

Castiel smiled, nodding. Rachel was an extremely valuable asset to have.  “Thank you, though don’t speak to anyone who showed extreme loyalty to Michael, Zachariah or Raphael.  Would you like me to add you to my garrison now?”

“That would be best.” Rachel agreed, morphing back into the rigid angelic self Castiel had always known her as. 

Reaching out with his grace, Castiel wove it into her wings, marking her with the symbol of his garrison and then drawing her grace with his as he pulled back.  A quick burst of power and weaves and it melded, another garrison radio opening up in the back of his mind, filled with the steady and loyal thrum of kettle drums that was Rachel’s song. 

“You can use the memories I’ve given you, and send any angels who would also rejoin my garrison to me.  I’ll find someone where we can base out of, for now it’ll be on earth.” Castiel decided, thinking about different places he could make it.  Preferably near Bobby Singer’s house, the closeness between hunters and angels would be safer.  “Be careful with who you speak to, we’ll have to keep in close communication about that, I don’t want you getting yourself killed for this.”

Rachel nodded again then in a blink was gone, already sending names over garrison radio, which Castiel listened and responded to, easily falling back into his role of garrison leader, though the garrison was still small.  The two ‘radios’ would get confusing though, so Castiel decided to call one hell’s radio and the other garrison radio.  Hell’s radio would stay too small to be considered a garrison, but even with only Castiel, Lucifer and Paimon having access to it, it was comfortable.  Far better than if it had been bigger. 

Grabbing the ingredients to the summoning spell, Castiel flew towards Bobby’s house, making larger circles around it until he found an abandoned estate a couple kilometers from the house in the opposite direction of the town.  It was surrounded in trees and a thorough grace examination showed that it was stuck in a financial transaction gone wrong, owned by no one and unvisited for years.  Landing in it showed a large castle like house, reminding Castiel of a place he had glimpsed on the TV once while Sam was watching a documentary.  He flew around the edges of both the property and the buildings it contained, setting up wards and sigils he had learned from both heaven and hell. 

During the process a couple angels showed up and Castiel added them to his garrison, recognizing them and doing a check of their graces to make sure they were safe.  They were all angels from the beginning of his list, Rachel had taken his warning to heart.  They were concerned about Father not being there and upset over knowing that the apocalypse hadn’t been His plan, or at least not in the current time.  Setting up a few rules and orders, Castiel left them to set up wards and clean up the place, slightly annoyed at their requirements for orders on how to use their free will and only further exasperated by the annoyance pouring off Lucifer.

Castiel flitted off to a clear sandy beach in Brazil, re-setting up the ingredients for the summoning spell and communicating with Rachel as to who they each talked to next.  The following twelve angels he spoke to and eleven Rachel talked with went well.  It was on the thirteenth angel that his warnings on safety needed to play out, and Castiel had to gently slide the vessel of one of his brothers off of his blade, breathing deeply as he healed the long gash in his arm.  Sadness came from Rachel, but no condemnation.  Things had been serious from the moment Castiel pulled Dean from hell, they couldn’t afford to make mistakes with angels who would only be too happy to sell them out. 

By the time rage and the icy feeling of death poured off of Lucifer, Castiel had had enough.  He had been forced to kill brothers and sisters that he had miscalculated on and both summoned to himself and allowed Rachel to summon.  Disgust at his actions churned through his grace, and Castiel asked Rachel for a short absence in which she would lead the angels, giving her a list of things that needed to be done to improve their makeshift garrison on earth.  She was to stop summoning angels, they would continue when Castiel was back, but something was happening in hell that required his immediate attention and he didn’t want to bring the angels into it, although he really wasn’t sure it had anything to do with hell, he didn’t tell her that.  He then instructed her to send a quick embassy to Bobby’s house, just to update the old hunter on what was happening and give greetings from Castiel.  Everyone had to have a second inspection with garrison radio to further confirm their loyalties first though.  The wrath in Lucifer built with the anxiety and negative feelings roiling through Castiel, and he finished his orders before masking himself partly from garrison radio, leaving only a line open so that he could be spoken to, but no one would be able to feel what he was feeling or see what he was doing.  He made sure they knew if anything bad happened he would still be available.

Trying to stem the fear of something gone horribly wrong, Castiel felt part of Lucifer’s song turn to one of self-loathing, clashing against itself and overpowering both Castiel and Paimon’s concern.  Full of worry and still agitated over his sibling’s deaths at Castiel’s own hands, he threw himself down to hell, aligning his flight path to Lucifer’s room when the archangel entered next to him.  The subsequent conversation did nothing to calm his nerves, with the added clash of Lucifer’s actions and War’s arrival, all Castiel could think was that maybe they both needed a break.  Acting on what Paimon had told him before and banishing thoughts of all else from his mind, Castiel tried to imitate some of the actions he had previously seen women do when approaching Dean.  Torture would compose Lucifer and since Castiel was already captivated by it, maybe it could calm him too.  He had wanted to watch Lucifer torture for some time now.  At the very least it would draw his thoughts away from angels and their free will. 

Free will may be a lifeline to someone drowning, but it was all too easily tangled into a noose. 


	13. Concepts and The Devil’s Advocate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer asks Gabriel for a quick favor, then is further stalled in his trip downstairs by Castiel, who has a surprising request. Meanwhile, Gabriel goes to clean up Lucifer's mess and has fun with the hunters while doing so.

Lucifer barely paused to make a nice landing, merely checking to make sure Gabriel was alone before snapping into existence in front of the archangel.  Gabriel’s first reaction was a grin, but then he seemed to notice Lucifer’s mood and he stepped back uneasily, fear flickering through his eyes

“Hey big bro” Gabriel greeted, the cheer in his voice ruined by the wary look on his face

“Gabriel. Can you look after Sam for a bit?  Heaven released War” Lucifer said bluntly, sticking to his cold voice so he wasn’t screaming in anger or crawling into a corner and dying of self-loathing.  He had no idea what he was feeling and all he wanted to do was to get rid of all the instability, preferably by torturing something. 

“They did what?”  Gabriel asked incredulously, his eyes widening “And you want me to do what?”

“I’m sorry Gabe” Lucifer breathed, closing his eyes and trying to focus past his agitation “I can’t explain anything right now, I don’t know how they did it, I don’t know who else is out.  I killed War, but Sam and a couple other hunters aren’t exactly in top condition anymore.  I would fix it myself, but they all know I’m the devil and I need to take something apart, preferably as slow as possible.  I’m sorry for sending you to do this before you’ve really met any of them other than Sam, and he thinks you’re a trickster, but I have to go”

“Should I be watching out for angel blades?” Gabriel inquired, seemingly taking Lucifer’s tone and words at face value and not joking around

Instantly Lucifer’s eyes snapped open and his emotionless mask dropped in favor of angry protectiveness.  With having so many parts of his family returned to him, Lucifer was feeling very protective these days “No.  I’d never send you there if they could kill you.  They don’t even have any holy oil with them.”

Gabriel nodded, relaxing somewhat as his grin became more genuine.  Lucifer rattled off the names of the hunters and the town, ignoring Gabriel’s parting quip and beyond grateful that his younger brother hadn’t argued.  Lucifer was itching for a blade, and losing his temper with Gabriel would really suck later when Lucifer wasn’t still caught up in War’s thrall.  He had no idea where he was, but didn’t stop to check, vacating only moments after Gabriel.  He flew to hell, aiming for Cold, but changing his course slightly when he felt Cas flying near.  Resisting the urge to sigh, Lucifer landed in his room and waited as the seraph alighted next to him. 

“What’s wrong?”  Cas asked without any pleasantries and Lucifer winced.  This was not going to do Lucifer any good, he had spent enough time talking to Gabriel, and was jittery enough he wouldn’t be able to be as delicate as he should with Cas

“Heaven raised War, please don’t make me talk now, I need to get going” Lucifer pleaded.  He knew Cas would understand what Lucifer meant, but couldn’t meet his eyes and see disgust at this reminder of who Lucifer was and still is “You can do whatever you want, I’ll explain later.  I have to go now though, I killed War, but he’s really influential.”

There was silence from the seraph and Lucifer started fidgeting with nerves and coiled up tension.  The seconds seemed to stretch into years, and Lucifer had just decided that his best bet was flying off when Cas spoke

“I’ll go with you” Cas said firmly

Lucifer sputtered for a response, finally deciding to be blunt “Dude, I’m going to go and torture a bunch of human souls.  You don’t want to be there to see that”

“I’ll admit that I wasn’t expecting this so soon, but yes, I do. Paimon and I discussed it extensively and I came to that conclusion. Additionally, meeting up with my brothers wasn’t exactly calming” Cas countered, stepping right up into Lucifer’s personal space to glare determinedly at him, his blue eyes pools of certainty.  “I know the souls you torture are ones who have harmed you as a human and that they deserve everything that’s done to them.  I’m fascinated by the entire concept and would take pleasure in watching you work.”

“The concept and reality are quite different” Lucifer tried helplessly.  Damn it, this really shouldn’t be as attractive an idea as it was.  Nevertheless, he was riding high on rage and adrenalin and the thought of Cas joining him and the way the seraph had phrased it were definitely sending blood downwards.  His angelic side was already completely on board, and he knew Cas would be able to read that from the way Lucifer’s wings unconsciously flared out.

“I watched demons torturing in Sharp, Lucifer.  You heard Paimon’s observation afterwards, it was accurate.” Cas murmured, leaning closer until his breath brushed across Lucifer’s lips and the archangel shivered.  When had the seraph learned this?  He was acting freaking miles away from the petrified little angel at the brothel.  “I want to go with you, I want you to share this with me.”

Cas looked so fucking hot, all stubbornness and obstinacy that only Dean had been accused of.  Lucifer narrowed his eyes at Cas, searching his face and waiting, keeping his nerves on hold for a little longer.  Just as he hoped, the prolonged silence caused Cas’ mask to crack and Lucifer could see nervousness and insecurity underneath.  With the reminder that this was fully Cas, all of Lucifer’s self-control crumbled and he grinned.  Two could play at this game, and Lucifer had far more practice at it.  To ease Cas’ anxiety, he first released his grace into the younger angel, offering and accepting what Cas was asking for.  A relieved smile crossed Cas’ face and Lucifer could feel a matching one growing on his.

“And I’d love to share it with you” Lucifer whispered, reaching out and gripping Cas’ hips as he pulled the seraph flush against him.  Not knowing what exactly to do, Cas rested his hand on Lucifer’s shoulders, managing to relax as Lucifer snapped open his wings and pulled them deeper into hell.

 

~*~

 

Despite Lucifer’s reassurances, Gabriel kept his archangel blade close at hand as he landed in the town, following the residue of his older brother’s grace and finding the hunters at a police station.  Overall, this was a really bad idea.  He was still uncertain about Lucifer turning over a new leaf, and the last time he had seen Sam Winchester it had been at the Mystery Spot, where he had tormented the hunter for months on end.  Languidly waltzing in there wasn’t the best idea, so he’d just have to hope Lucifer had warned them of his coming and cautiously waltz inside.  Considering Lucifer’s state of mind while talking to Gabriel previously, he really had no help here and would have to get by with jokes and charm.  It really shouldn’t be too bad then, ‘because he was absolutely filled to the brim with them both.

The whole station was covered in thin places of ice, and as all the glass within a good fifty meters was blown out, Gabriel just strode through the remains of the doors, grinning at the hunters gathered inside.  They really were a pitiful lot, frostbitten, confused and green from looking at the puddle in the corner where Gabriel assumed Lucifer’s little rage fest had occurred. 

“Who are you?” The younger female spat, bringing her gun up to train it on him, little good it would do.  This must be Jo Harvelle

“Trickster.” And yes, there was the younger Winchester, blunt as ever and tied up in a chair at the base of a wall.

“Why I’m touched that you remember me!”  Gabriel grinned, batting his eyes at the hunter

Sam glared at him, really not a very threatening look coming from someone tied to a chair and Gabriel took pity on him, snapping his fingers and causing the ropes to disappear.

“Now I’m tempted to keep you tied up but I somehow don’t think big brother would approve.  I do hope he informed you all I’m coming” Gabriel smirked as the hunters started to spread out.  Guess not, so introductions might be in order.

“Wait, you’re Gabriel?”  Sam realized before Gabriel could say it, living up to his reputation as the quick witted one

“Guilty!”  Gabriel announced, the smirk turning into a soft smile.  It had really been a long time since anyone called him by his name, Lucifer and Castiel excluded.

“You’re with Lucifer?” The older woman, Ellen Harvelle, asked, abandoning the circling tactic and instead moving over to protect her daughter

“I do hope I’m not going to be the devil’s advocate here” He joked and flashed a glared at Sam, hoping he got the message across that Gabriel really didn’t want to be, especially not to a group of hunters he didn’t know or care for.  “I don’t remember long explanations being in my job description”

 “Can you at least explain why War was here?”  Sam pressed and even Gabriel could tell he was desperately stalling, or perhaps he actually wanted to know.  You never knew with these human types.

“Lucifer said Heaven let him out.  He hasn’t had enough time to really test that theory, but I agree.” Gabriel reassured, “Why don’t you explain so I can get to healing.  I was visiting a lovely candy shop when Lucifer pulled me away and I really want to get back to it.  I swear they had candy there I’ve never even heard of.”  

With that he strode forwards, ignoring Sam’s stunted conversation with the other hunters, grinning at Sam’s discomfort and using a slow touch to heal instead of a snap just to fluster the man.  That was the only reason he did it that way though, and to make sure his grace knew it too, Gabriel flirted with them all, chuckling at the oldest hunter’s gruff jabs.

“Alright, so let me get this straight” Ellen finally stated after a short pause in the talking, “Lucifer is Dean Winchester, who is now trying to stop the apocalypse while heaven wants to continue it.”

“Yup” Gabriel answered cheerfully, interrupting Sam and backing away from Jo, ignoring the fact that there were guns trained on him at all times.  He really hated having to repair his clothes and vessel, so flirting with Jo around Ellen probably wasn’t the best idea.  Flirting with Ellen hadn’t proven to work either, then with Rufus’ disgust, that just left Sam.  It was quite odd that they weren’t blowing his brains out on principle, reasonable lot they were.  For the most part.  “Fun times.  Is there anything else I’m needed to do, or can I go?”

“Just wait one second” Sam made a ‘stay’ motion with his hand and promptly ignored Gabriel, something he really didn’t approve of.  He wasn’t a dog, though he had taken a canine vessel in the past. “Yes.  Lucifer’s still Dean, talks like him, acts more or less like him.  I’m guessing this was all just War’s influence, I know we were all affected by him too”

“Except none of us killed a bunch of innocent people while under his influence.  How is what he did still Dean?” Jo spat, a miasma of confusion, betrayed and horror rolling off her in waves.  Maybe she had been close to Dean, Gabriel thought, slightly irritated at the bombardment of emotions.  Things like that were only good off people who deserved it, and from the state of Jo’s soul, she didn’t.

“Lucifer is an archangel.  If any of you had the juice any of us have, there would’ve been a lot more dead bodies here.  Personally I’m amazed he managed not to kill any of you also.”  Gabriel huffed, he really needed some candy for this conversation—oh wait, archangel.  With that happy reminder, Gabriel snapped his fingers, ignored the collective flinch and tore the wrapper off the sucker he had summoned before popping it in his mouth and continuing on.  “If he hadn’t been Dean the whole town would be leveled and War’d still be here.”

“That’s reassuring” Rufus snorted, turning to face him and studiously ignoring the blood in the corner. “And how do we know we can trust you?”

“You really shouldn’t” Gabriel said confidently, then lowered his voice to a whisper as if confiding something really important. “I’m a trickster, a pagan deity and an archangel, for some reason I’ve found that most hunters don’t like me.

He grinned at the humans confused expressions and returned to his normal voice, “But Lucifer asked me to look after Sam, and though he’ll owe me a favor later, that’s what I plan to do.”

“Can you get us back to Bobby’s house?”  Sam asked before Rufus could reply and Gabriel mock gasped, laying a hand over his heart as if offended

“Sammy boy, it hurts that you doubt me.” He claimed, unable to resist the theatrics. “Got any cars you need me to also bring along?”

“The impala’s here.” Sam answered, looking over to the others and raising an eyebrow.  Much to Gabriel’s disappointment the hunter completely ignored his act.  

“We’ve got a truck, and Rufus has a vehicle.”  Jo responded finally, after a small eye conference between them.

Gabriel nodded, raising his hand and unable to resist one last parting quip before snapping. “Now, this _should_ work.”

*Snap*


	14. Frozen Spikes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Castiel reveals his fascination with torture to Lucifer, the archangel takes him down to Cold. One there, Lucifer proceeds to work off a little steam and Castiel ends up making an important decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Graphic torture and sexual content. 
> 
> Do yourself a favor and skip the entire chapter. If you just want to skip the torture, scroll down to ***Lucifer had been...
> 
> I really didn't know whether to keep this in, in fact I actively decided against it, but going through it and the next chapter I realized that would mean I'd need to completely rewrite Dean and Cas' first delve into a more sexual relationship, and given that I've spent the past few hours moving around and going through my old fics, I don't have the patience to do so. Especially not when I already know there's a part at the end I still want to rewrite.

Torturing someone with Cas in close proximity was not calming.  It was enthralling, arousing and enticing, the knowledge that the innocent seraph was watching him tear apart a soul—still taking the form of a human body—and actually enjoying it as much as he later proved he was?  Lucifer could think of nothing that would make it any more perfect then it already was.

Lucifer flew the two of them to Cold, lazily tearing a soul from the storage river and flinging it onto the frozen ground they landed in front of.  When souls weren't being actively tortured they were placed in different rivers that poured through all sections of hell.  A lava river for Heat, a river of blades for Sharp, a river of below zero water for Cold, etc.  It was a great way of keeping them in pain without actually paying attention to them.  Even so, the amount of demons who had never gone to earth and spent their whole existence torturing in hell mostly balanced out the amount of souls they had in hell, ready to be tortured.  The soul Lucifer had chosen now was one who would never be given the option to become a demon, due to the sins it committed while alive it was forced to stay on the rack for its entire stay in hell.  It had been there since Dean killed it and yet still took the form of an adult human male, unable to think of itself as anything else.

Taking four decimeter long spikes of frozen steel from the ground and arranging the soul into a star like position, Lucifer pounded them through the soul’s wrists and ankles, the cold freezing the blood so it wouldn’t bleed into painless delirium, but also sticking and tearing at the soul’s natural heat, pulling screams at the smallest movement.

"You're sure you're okay with this?" Lucifer asked, turning to face Cas, who was examining the soul with a pensive look on his face.

"Yes.  What did it do to you?" Cas asked, the question barely above a murmur.

Lucifer swallowed, looking away for a second before answering "When I was a kid, John didn't always leave enough money for me and Sam to get by.  One time when I was out earning money he beat and raped me.  Didn’t even pay."

The last part was said flippantly, an attempt to take the weight out of his words.  It was much easier to say when he knew only Cas would hear it, and to Lucifer’s relief no pity crossed the seraphs face.  Neither did he look disgusted at the means Dean had been forced to turn to in order to take care of his younger brother.  Dean had long since dealt with the things that happened to him as a human child, pushing them down into the back of his mind and locking them away.  Ignoring everything to protect his brother.  As an archangel he still had no plans of revisiting any of that, better to dole out punishment than to think on the reasons for doing so. 

"You don't need to ask me again.  Every soul that is here deserves to be here" Cas stated, leaning down and prodding the spike in one of the soul’s hands, drawing out another scream that seemed to fascinate the seraph.  Lucifer nodded, a smile growing on his face and he turned to look down at the soul, its face twisted in fear.

"What part did you enjoy most?" Lucifer asked, deciding that he would do this according to whatever Cas wanted.  He needed to get his fix and calm himself down, but this would be the first time Cas saw him at his negative base, torturing for the fun of it.

Cas looked slightly surprised at his question, but smiled, a warm look that was completely at odds with where they were.  "The detail I suppose, more attention paid than blunt force.  The variety of ways to cause infinite pain"

Lucifer grinned, his humanity falling away, back into memories of torturing souls and his angelic side glowing in happiness, the two halves pushing all else aside and focusing on nothing more than savage foundation urges.  So he'd be able to tell how Cas was doing emotion-wise, Lucifer pulled the seraph's song into his mind, further twining the two of them together.  Lowering the temperature around the soul’s arms, he decided to start with them first.  A small wrist movement and a thin blade of ice appeared in his hand, a smooth edge with a long fine tip.  Settling down, Lucifer started with the right hand, enjoying the screams as he slowly carved around the nerves, exposing them to the freezing air and creating a lovely ironwork pattern that shook as the soul withered in pain.

It took almost an hour to uncover all the different nerves, muscles, and ligaments up to the souls shoulder and by the end tears were freezing on its cheeks and its throat was bloody from screaming.  To top the pattern off, Lucifer pulled thin strands of fire into existence and started to wrap them around the nerves, creating a zebra like effect of freezing air and fire.  Lucifer glanced up to see Castiel crouched beside him, staring in fascination at the lace design the souls arm was now sporting.  Lucifer felt a rush of warmth go through him, he had been flicking the flesh and the blood out of existence to keep the area clean and perfectly visible and it looked like Cas appreciated the view.  It didn't matter what you cut in hell, souls could still feel every part of themselves.  In this instance however, Lucifer didn’t mind doing a little clean up.

Cas frowned suddenly, then turned to Lucifer.  "Can you quiet its screams, they're very irritating when I'm trying to listen to your song"

Lucifer tilted his head in shock, surprised at both Cas' request and the fact that he was listening to Lucifer's song.  He hasn't even noticed Cas pulling on it.

"Yup, I can do that" Lucifer agreed, moving around the soul as its screams grew louder, now more of fright than pain and dotted with desperate pleas in English, a language Lucifer only rarely used in hell.  Lucifer had tortured it before and though it didn’t remember him as Dean—no one did—he knew that it knew it was being singled out. 

First he removed the handle from the ice blade he had been working with and added a gravelly texture so it would tear.  Then as he pulled the souls head back to expose its throat, Lucifer delicately but forcefully slid the ice through its skin, cutting through the larynx and leaving it embedded in the soul’s vertebra.  It continued to scream, but with no use of its vocal cords or connection to its lungs, no noise came out. 

"You put the fire there for contrast?" Cas asked, now watching Lucifer's hands as he moved on to the souls other arm and began to carve the skin away from there too, this time to expose the bones. 

"Ya, nerves can't stand the polar opposites, especially when they're being directly touched by them." Lucifer explained, leaning over the soul and running a finger down the median nerve, drawing a fresh batch of tears from the soul.

After that Cas started asking more questions, never touching the soul again, but zeroing in to watch Lucifer work, listening intently as Lucifer explained his reasoning for breaking certain bones or pouring boiling water in places, watching as it steamed and eventually froze.  The seraph hadn't been lying when he said he found it fascinating, he has no hesitations about Lucifer’s work.  After Lucifer was finished with the soul’s arms, he pulled it upwards, commanding the ice to maneuver, creating a tree like rack to hang the soul from so Lucifer no longer had to crouch.  Cas watched Lucifer the entire time he was opening the rest of the soul up, turning it into a skinless masterpiece.  

***Lucifer had been examining the soul and deciding on what to do next when Cas pressed up against his side, meeting his eyes and everything seemed to stop, just the two of them sharing a gaze.  Lucifer's smirk returned full force as he realized the reasoning behind being Cas' attention and the seraph dropped his eyes first, a faint blush appearing on his cheeks. 

"So Paimon definitely didn't have it wrong" Lucifer drawled, closing the space between the two of them and cleaning himself off with a thought.  He reached forwards and tipped Cas' head back up, thrilled at the way Cas bared his throat to Lucifer even after seeing what he had done.  Softly Lucifer whispered, "Look at me"

Seemingly unable to resist, Cas met his eyes and Lucifer could tell he was trying to pull back the confidence he had had before.  There was no uncertainty in his song, just insecurity. 

"No he didn't." Cas finally admitted

"Why?" Lucifer asked, genuinely curious.  Cas' answer could change a great many things.

"The first time I went to hell to pull you out, I was still a 'hammer' and you were torturing a soul in Tension.  I thought you looked beautiful." Cas said, biting his lip and speaking slowly, evidently recognizing the possible weight of this moment and trying to gather his thoughts.  "More recently when I helped you stop the demon uprising, I saw them torturing each other and only thought I'd like to see you do that one day.  Now actually seeing that and having a connection to your grace, I want you, however I can have you. I don’t know what I’m doing, but you do.”

Lucifer laughed softly, examining Cas’ blue eyes and all his sincerity.  The angel really was beautiful, and that statement would never be heard aloud or else he’d have to turn in his man card forever.  Leaning down, he hesitantly pressed his lips against the seraphs, not even attempting to keep it chaste when Cas gasped, opening his mouth and allowing Lucifer entrance.  Their tongues tangled and Lucifer grinned into the kiss as Cas let out a small moan, seemingly surprised at the noise.  Lucifer moved his hands down to Cas’ hips, pulling the seraph closer and this time it was him who gasped as he felt Cas’ hardness pressing back against his own. 

Pulling away, he chuckled at the small noise of protest Cas made and the blush that lightly tinted his cheeks.  “Cas, if we start this now, I’m not going to be able to stop”

To Lucifer’s delight, Cas didn’t even hesitate, twining his hands around the back of Lucifer’s neck and pulling him down for another kiss. 

 “My house?” Lucifer asked the procedural question lightly against Cas’ lips, laughing at the seraphs confused look and spreading his wings before Cas could no doubt explain that he didn’t have a house, so why would that ever be in question?  In a blink they were in Lucifer’s room.  His actual sleeping room, and not the motel room he used for meeting with Cas and or Paimon.  This one had an extravagant amount of comfort luxury mixed in with familiar things, a log cabin that from the inside appeared separated from the rest of his property, but was actually a part of it. 

Walking Cas backwards towards the bed, Lucifer pushed the seraph onto his back and crawled to straddle him.  He reclaimed the seraphs lips and just let their tongues dance together lazily for a while, tasting the seraph and swallowing all his little noises of pleasure.  Cas bucked into Lucifer, and he growled as Cas gasped away from the kiss, amazed at this new friction.  Tilting his head down, Lucifer started to suck bruises into Cas’ throat, pleased at the markings and pulling aside Cas’ clothes to continue.  He came to a scar on the seraphs chest and stopped abruptly, frozen.

“Lucifer?” Cas asked uncertainly, his voice somehow managing to go an octave lower even than it was normally. 

Lucifer sat up and groaned as that brought his hardness in contact with Cas’, but forced himself to keep his eyes open as he mojoed their clothing away, gripping Cas’ hips so that the seraph couldn’t move and giving Lucifer a second to admire the lean body in front of him.  Lucifer moved his hand onto Cas’ chest and slid it to fit perfectly into the handprint branded there.  After the promotion he had somehow forgotten about it, but now it caused a possessive growl rise in his throat.  Any thoughts of taking this slow were instantly forgotten in a surge of possessiveness

“ _Mine_ ” He hissed, then leaned back down to plunder Cas’ mouth, letting out an inhuman snarl as he ground down into Cas, sliding their cocks together.  Cas reached up and wrapped his hands around Lucifer’s neck, pulling him even closer and groaning at the full skin to skin contact. 

“Show me your wings” Lucifer said between kisses, bringing his own into substance and holding them above the seraph, giving Cas room to take out his own.  Cas whimpered softly at the command and his shadow wings came into view.  Grinding down again as an incentive, Lucifer slid his wings over Cas’, meshing the feathers together and slipping the remainder of his wings around and into Cas’ vessel to stroke his grace.  Cas’ instantly started to push his wings harder against Lucifer’s, letting out small sound of pleasure at the mingling of grace. 

Realizing that Cas probably hadn’t done this before and therefore wouldn’t last long, Lucifer leaned down to speak. “Can I fuck you?”

“Yes!” Cas gasped, completely taken with the new sensations.  Lucifer growled his contentment and moved both hands down, mojoing lubricant on both so he could wrap one around their cocks and delve the other even further.  At the first touch of his finger to Cas’ hole the seraph cried out, pushing downwards.  Through the pleasure he somehow managed to tangle his fingers with Lucifer’s on their cocks and start to fuck into their combined hands.  Lucifer grinned and began to suck more marks onto Cas’ neck as he pushed a finger into the seraph, thrusting it in and out with the time of Cas’ bucking.  Wanting to get inside Cas as soon as possible he quickly pushed his second finger in and scissored them.  The seraph was gasping with their movements like a fucking porn star, but Lucifer knew it was because he didn’t know about any of the taboos humans had put on sex.  The idea was incredibly hot.  Pushing a third finger into Cas’ hole he started searching for the seraphs prostrate, knowing he had found it when Cas let out a strangled cry and pressed down hard against Lucifer’s hand.

Moving back and releasing their cocks—letting Cas stroke them alone—Lucifer just admired Cas withering as he was stretched.  Cas was so fucking gorgeous like this, eyes closed in pleasure, mouth slightly open and thrusting upwards with abandon.  Lucifer rubbed his hand over the brand he had made and hummed greedily.  Cas had claimed ownership him so long ago when he had been Dean and Lucifer loved returning the action and the sentiments that went with it.  The being laying beneath him with three fingers up his ass and his wings wrapped in Lucifer’s wings was completely and utterly owned by Lucifer.  They weren’t bonded yet, but for now this mark would never go away, no one else would be able to look at his seraph without knowing that Cas belonged to Lucifer.  That Cas was Lucifer’s mate

At that thought Lucifer just had to move things forward or else he would come then and there, so he pulled his fingers out, adoring Cas’ whine of disagreement.  Complying with his seraph’s- _mate’s_ wishes, Lucifer pulled Cas’ legs up onto his shoulders so as to better position himself and drew his cock away from the rhythm of Cas’ hand with a groan.  Quickly slicking himself up, Lucifer positioned himself at Cas’ entrance and started to push in.  At the first press of wet heat he had to close his eyes and rest his head on Cas’ shoulder, listening to his mates deep pants and already almost completely gone.  If they hadn’t been building up to this since Castiel pulled him out of hell, Lucifer would probably be more embarrassed about his lasting time.

“You okay?” He murmured into Cas’ ear, gently biting it.  To help settle the burn he moved one hand to stroke Cas’ cock since his mate had abandoned it to just focus on Lucifer being inside him. 

“More” Cas breathed just as quietly, but his voice matching the lust and desire in Lucifer’s.  Biting down now on Cas’ jaw and trying to keep the rhythm of his hand, Lucifer continued to push in, slowly bottoming out.

“Fuck Cas, it’s like you’re _made_ for this” He hissed, trying not to come.  He wanted this to last as long as he could make it. “You’re so fucking perfect, so amazingly perfect for me”

Cas groaned at the words and squeezed down on Lucifer’s cock, earning himself a quick twist to the movement on his own. “Move”

Smirking, Lucifer pulled almost all the way out before slamming back in.  Cas arched upwards and then reached out to bury his fingers in the backs of Lucifer’s largest pair of wings.  Lucifer’s were overtop of Cas’ for the most part which meant it was harder to get to them, but Cas managed it, digging into the place where they connected with his vessel.  This time it was Lucifer’s turn to cry out, the ice and spikes in his wings which could’ve shredded Cas instead recognizing and accepting him, drawing back to let Cas curl his fingers into the softer and more vulnerable grace flow through his wings.  The physical contact with their graces as Cas let his shadow wings temporarily meld to Lucifer’s tore away the last of Lucifer’s restraint and he pounded into his mate with abandon.  Kissing Cas again he only just managed to keep his grace inside.  It would not be good for Cas for them to bond in hell, Lucifer might belong in its depths, but Cas’ home level lay elsewhere. 

He could feel himself drawing near orgasm and redoubled his efforts to pleasure Cas, swiping his thumb over the head of Cas’ cock and aiming for his prostrate.  It only took three more thrusts before Cas was coming, his grace exploding from his vessel and the tightening as his ass causing Lucifer to follow suit.  It felt like the longest orgasm of his life, everything else blanked out and all Lucifer could feel was Cas, both surrounding and being surrounded by his mate.  He barely managed to fall to the side when it was over, avoiding crushing Cas and letting his wings take the brunt of his fall.  They lay there in the afterglow for what seemed like ages, panting into each other’s mouths and holding a shared gaze.  Cas was so damn stunning, not only his vessel with his ruffled black hair and striking blue eyes, but his true form as well. 

Feeling well sated and the happiest he had been in a long time, Lucifer wrapped his wings tighter around his mate and pulled them together, mindlessly mojoing away the mess from Cas’ stomach but possessively keeping his come inside his mate.  A fact that, from the amused and tired chuckle, Cas hadn’t missed. 

“Remind me to tell you about the angels tomorrow” Cas mumbled sleepily, nuzzling his face into Lucifer’s neck and inhaling deeply. 

Lucifer laughed softly as he felt Cas’ hand move to his left shoulder and rest on his handprint.  Looked like Lucifer wasn’t the only one feeling a bit possessive.  Without even questioning it he whispered, “I love you so fucking much”

He could feel Cas smile into his skin taking some of tension from admitting that out of him, but it wasn’t till Cas drew back to again meet his eyes that Lucifer was able to completely relax.

“I love you too.” Cas responded, looking so adorable that Lucifer just had to claim his lips one last time.

“Sleep.” He murmured, and Cas hummed in agreement, allowing Lucifer to wrap them back up in his wings.  They couldn’t actually sleep, but Lucifer really just wanted to rest beside his mate, no matter how sappy that made him.

“Sleep.” Cas repeated, and Lucifer let himself drift, clinging tightly to the angel who had long ago become his foundation and now more recently become his home.


	15. Save The Frozen Lemonade And Fix The Showers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The morning after for Lucifer and Castiel is full of possessiveness and surprisingly non awkward feelings. Meeting up with the hunters, Gabriel, and Paimon back on earth doesn't go quite as smoothly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sexual content in the beginning.

The first thing Lucifer saw when he opened his eyes was Cas, the young seraph still lost in the angelic equivalent of sleep, his eyes closed and sporting amazing sex hair, freaking adorable.  His shadow wings were out, melding with Lucifer’s own as Cas nuzzled further into Lucifer’s chest, letting out a small happy noise at the closeness now that they were both allowed.

 Lucifer could feel himself getting hard at the memory of the night before and he decided to have a little fun with waking Cas.  Lucifer slowly slid down the bed, untangling himself from Cas and positioning himself over his mate’s soft cock, ignoring the small protest he made as Lucifer’s warmth left.  Leaning down he licked a stripe up Cas’ cock before taking it into his mouth, moaning at the weight on his tongue.  Cas echoed the moan softly from above him and Lucifer flicked his eyes upwards, grinning around Cas’ cock as his mate unconsciously bucked, his cock hardening.  Lucifer pressed forwards, taking Cas’ whole length and sucking, hollowing out his cheeks and waiting for Cas to wake.  Cas’ eyes fluttered open and he let out another moan as he woke, seemingly disoriented for a few moments before meeting Lucifer’s eyes and gasping.  Lucifer hummed softly and reached out to stroke his hands up Cas’ thighs, increasing the suction and bobbing his head.

“Lucifer” Cas gasped.  The seraph pushed himself up onto his elbows and stared hungrily at Lucifer as he continued to suck, pulling back to lap at the head of Cas’ cock, tonguing the precome appearing there before plunging back down until he had to relax his gag reflex around it.  Cas seemed enthralled and he reached out, smoothing his fingers over Lucifer’s stretched mouth, feeling his cock sliding between the archangel’s lips.  Lucifer swallowed and Cas let out a long groan, fisting the sheets beneath him. 

Reaching under his mate, Lucifer pressed a finger into his still stretched hole and Cas came with a shout of Lucifer’s name, Lucifer swallowing down all that the seraph had to offer before releasing Cas’ cock with a wet pop and crawling up his mate’s body to plunder his mouth.

“Do you want me to-?” Cas asked between kisses, moving his hand to touch Lucifer’s still hard cock and the archangel let out a growl, bucking into Cas’ hand

“Your hand” Lucifer answered, moving to suck more bruises into his mates neck, the feeling of possessiveness coming back full force.  _Mine_ , Lucifer thought fiercely as Cas began jerking him off, not taking long before the archangel was spilling over, painting Cas with his come. 

 Lucifer just breathed for a few seconds, his face pressed into his mate’s neck.  Finally deciding he should actually move, because no matter the time difference between hell and earth, time still moved in both of them.  Once he had sat up however he stopped to admire the view, the greedy feeling satisfied at the sight of his mate.  Lucifer’s handprint from promoting Cas stood out starkly on his mate’s lean body, matched with the bruises Lucifer had sucked into his skin and the come that now painted it all. 

He swept his hand through the come, gathering up as much as he could before commanding “Turn over.”

Cas looked confused at this, but did as he was told, his insubstantial wings going straight through the bed and then settling against his back.  Lucifer lightly grabbed a wing with his free hand, spreading it open and letting out a pleased noise when Cas spread all his wings, leaving himself vulnerably open and facing away, his arms folded underneath his head.  Lucifer then spread Cas’ legs and kneeled in-between them, amused at the small leak of come from Cas’ hole.  First things first though, so Lucifer leaned forwards and started to run his hands through Cas’ wings, grooming him and spreading his come around in them.  Cas let out a satisfied sound and practically melted into the bed as Lucifer continued his grooming.  It would take more than just that to completely cover Cas’ wings, but as much as Lucifer wanted to, they simply didn’t have time and he finished up the last wing quickly. He took a moment to just enjoy the sight of Cas’ wings, streaked and groomed through with his come, marking him for the whole world to see as Lucifer’s property.  

“Come on love” Lucifer said, moving off of Cas and pausing slightly at the endearment that had slipped out.  He knew he loved Cas, but he hadn’t expected it to be that easy to say aloud, considering his past relationships.  They hadn’t fully bonded yet, so Lucifer couldn’t know that Cas would stay, but still he felt like he wanted to take that chance, that maybe Cas would _want_ to stay as Lucifer’s mate.  They had an emotional and now sexual bond, but they hadn’t gone through the actual claiming ritual.  Mates in title only for now, but the thought of claiming caused a thrill to go through him and he wanted nothing more than to stay and mark Cas even further.  Completely debauch the seraph until no one else would even think of touching him because they knew he belonged entirely to Lucifer.

“How long has it been?”  Cas asked lazily, stretching his wings and sitting up, wincing slightly as he put pleasure on his sore ass. 

Right, earth.  That had been the reason he needed to get up. “Umm, not too long, part of a day, give or take”

Lucifer snapped his fingers, summoning his clothes.  Though he really wanted to just take Cas again, bonding in hell wasn’t the greatest idea.  That’s what the place between was for—it actually wasn’t, but that was just arguing semantics.  Cas grinned up at him and for a second the face of the drugged out Future Cas flashed through Lucifer’s mind before he realized how truly happy this smile was.  Future Cas would never be allowed to happen, Lucifer would never leave Cas.  Lucifer smiled back as Cas also summoned his classic ensemble and he pulled the seraph up, kissing him chastely before speaking again.

“What was it that you wanted to tell me before?” Lucifer asked and was surprised to see nervousness on his mates face.  “What?”

“I recreated my garrison.” Cas burst out in one breath, his body a tense line up against Lucifer’s front. “I wasn’t sure if I should ask you first, but then I spoke to Rachael and realized that I couldn’t just ask angels to help me and then expect them to fend for themselves, so I just made one.  There are about thirty-five of them, all from my old garrison.  I found an abandoned house near Bobby’s to set them up in-“

“It’s okay” Lucifer interrupted Cas’ rambling, soothingly running his hands down the seraphs sides.  “That makes sense, I should have told you that you could do it beforehand.”

Cas breathed out a sigh of relief and relaxed against Lucifer, nodding. “I need to go and check up on them.  I left abruptly”

“Sure. I also have to go and check on Sam, see how the hunters are doing.” Lucifer snorted and rested his cheek on Cas’ head, worry over his last actions on earth popping back up “I sent Gabriel to help Sam.  That was a really shitty idea.”

“It’s not your fault, we didn’t expect heaven to raise any of the horsemen.” Cas murmured and Lucifer took another moment to rest before straightening up and placing his walls back into place.  Cas looked slightly perturbed at the sudden distance and Lucifer quickly kissed him to dissolve any uncertainty.

“You’re right.  And we should definitely go.  After you’re finished can you come to Bobby’s house? Bring a couple angels from your garrison?”  Lucifer could technically command Cas on how to deal with his garrison, but trusted Cas to know best.

Cas nodded and Lucifer could tell he was also drawing up that angelic mindset.  The fact that both of them had to pull up walls to go out into the world was both elating and sad.  That they could find comfort in each other was something that Lucifer would thank his Father for if he hadn’t turned his back on Him so long ago.

“Okay” Cas said, kissing Lucifer firmly before spreading his wings and disappearing, flying to earth and Lucifer quickly followed, brushing against his mate as they slipped through the place between and then separating once on earth.  Cas really was terrible at using pleasantries, but Lucifer loved him anyways. 

He was slightly surprised when he  was able to land in Bobby’s kitchen, he hadn’t known they had removed the sigils that kept him out, and he wasn’t sure whether that was a good thing or bad.  Sweeping his gaze over the room and then letting his grace look around the house, he felt the hunters and Gabriel in the living room.  Inwardly he sighed.  This wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation, therefore beer and maybe Paimon were needed.  Cas wouldn’t be there for a while and back up would be awesome.  

 

~*~

 

The sound of the fridge being opened alerted Gabriel to another angelic presence in Bobby Singer’s house and he turned on his conjured up chair, stilling.  It was probably just Lucifer, but one could never be too sure, plus there was the mood Lucifer had been in last time Gabriel had seen him.  The hunters he had been talking to—Sam, Bobby, Ellen, Jo and Rufus—tensed at the noise as well, reaching for weapons and Gabriel lazily waved them down.  Even with Sam now having an archangel blade none of them could best Lucifer, not that it would deter them from trying

“How can there not be any beer in this house?” Sure enough, Lucifer walked around the corner and instantly everyone except for Bobby and Gabriel backed up, Rufus going so far as to mutter about angel killing weapons. 

“Well I was going to go out for a supply run.”  Bobby replied, standing up warily

“Dude!  You got your legs back” Lucifer grinned like a little kid and Gabriel narrowed his eyes, confused at such a turnabout.  Even with the amount of time in hell that he must’ve had, this was too cheerful.  “Gabriel do that?”

Bobby nodded and Lucifer turned to Gabriel and thanked him, still smiling even amidst the weapons raised against him.  Lucifer’s grace looked different, changed then the last time Gabriel had seen him.  Almost like the beginnings of a bond…

The pieces clicked suddenly and Gabriel let out a hoot of laughter, relaxing and sitting back. “Well look who fucked little Cassie”

Lucifer glared at him, giving further weight to Gabriel’s theory and the archangel just flashed a shit-eating grin at the devil.  Sam made a choking noise and Lucifer’s attention was diverted. 

“What?” The hunter managed, lowering his blade.  Lucifer ran his hand over his face and snapped his fingers, sitting back into an armchair he caused to appear along with a beer.

“How bout we move on from my sex life before even starting that topic” Lucifer grumbled, cracking open a beer and addressing the world at large. “We really need to talk about this whole apocalypse thing.  Cas will be coming soon and I’ve asked Paimon to also join us so don’t try and kill him.”

“I’m pretty sure Cas already came” Gabriel quipped, oh this was going to be so much fun. 

Lucifer opened his mouth to strike back at Gabriel but Ellen interrupted first. “You’re Lucifer, not even a day ago you slaughtered a bunch of innocent civilians and now want to talk civilly?”

Lucifer grimaced slightly and cocked his head at Ellen. “No one’s immune to War or Death.  Higher supernatural creatures are only exempt from Famine and Pestilence.  That is when he’s not being Conquest.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re Lucifer” Jo bit out and Sam sighed, stepping into the conversation, though he still looked uncomfortable from Gabriel’s last comment.

“I already told you what happened.” Sam pointed out before turning to Lucifer. “What do you want to talk about regarding the apocalypse?”

“The fact that the angels are encouraging it to happen.” Lucifer answered “We need to figure out how to do this with as little collateral damage as possible.”

“We could all just become hippies? Let heaven do what they want.  Nothing can happen if you don’t fight Michael” Gabriel suggested, popping a candy in his mouth and crunching happily on it

“Gabriel be serious” Sam snapped and Gabriel stopped chewing, taken aback.  Lucifer may have thrown off all of War’s effects, but it didn’t look like Sam had.  Least that’s hopefully why he was being so intolerable

“No I definitely agree.  Make love not war, the whole shebang.  I was on earth during Woodstock you know.  Fun times” A new voice said, the flapping of wings its only herald.  Gabriel turned again to see the newcomer, a young effeminate man with white eyes and demonic leathery wings.  Archdemon.  Gabriel was on his feet instantly but before he could smite the newcomer Lucifer was in front of him, wings spread protectively but not threatening.

“This is Paimon.” Lucifer explained, waiting till Gabriel had lowered his own wings—which had automatically come up—into a non-threatening position before folding in his own.  Gabriel knew the hunters wouldn’t have been able to see what had just happened, but from the colorful cursing he could tell they hadn’t missed what Paimon was.  Gabriel looked at the ex-angel who had followed Lucifer to hell and tried to make the connection.  Paimon’s grace was completely demonized with a mix of Lucifer’s grace blended into it.  Evidently he had also gone through a ‘promotion’, though he hadn’t been as purposefully marked like Castiel.

“Alright” Gabriel finally said, turning his chair so he could see the full room.  Relief flashed through Lucifer’s eyes and he turned to argue with the hunters who were making a huge fuss about Paimon being a white-eye.

“So why are you doing this?” Gabriel asked Paimon, using a vague waving motion to indicate the apocalypse. 

The archdemon grinned, answering cockily as he moved closer to Gabriel “Well for Disneyworld of course.  ‘World of dreams’ man, you haven’t lived ‘til you’ve tried their frozen lemonade.  There isn’t any lemonade in hell, and even the stuff you archangels snap up can’t match it.”

The answer startled a laugh out of Gabriel, he had been expecting some drawn out explanation of either the glory of humans or even promises of rewards. “I’m going to love proving you wrong”

With that he snapped his fingers, not missing Paimon’s slight flinch back towards Lucifer but choosing not to mention it.  Archangel against archdemon, angel wins almost every time.  A small tub of frozen lemonade appeared in Gabriel’s hand and he tossed it at Paimon who caught it easily.

“This is _from_ Disneyworld” Paimon protested, reading the container

“But I did snap it up” Gabriel pointed out and Paimon laughed, shaking his head and turning away from Gabriel for a second.  Lucifer had stood up in his argument with the hunters and Paimon skillfully maneuvered the chair out from behind the devil before pushing it up next to Gabriel and flopping down.  Gabriel would’ve thought an archdemon would try and get as far as he could from the archangels when they weren’t friends or really allies, but Paimon seemed to be unconsciously moving everything closer.

“And yourself?” Paimon asked Gabriel, opening the lemonade and using his fingers to eat it, making a pleased sound at the taste.

“You’re not the only one with a sweet tooth.  Plus it’s so exciting down here” Gabriel responded in kind, not mentioning anything of his understated annoyance with his fighting older brothers.  Or any of the many other issues with the apocalypse happening now

“It is!” Paimon exclaimed, curling up in his chair like a cat. “Humans are so fun.  You never know what they’re going to do.  well, unless you do.  But that’s beside the point.”

Gabriel snorted at the obviousness of that sentence and said as much, laughing at Paimon’s pout.

“Dude!” Lucifer suddenly interrupted the two of them and Gabriel tried to look attentive, relaxing when he noticed that Lucifer was glaring at Paimon and not him.  “You stole my chair!”

“And if you really wanted it, you’d come and get it.” Paimon pointed out childishly, over exaggerating his relaxation into the chair.  Lucifer rolled his eyes but didn’t further argue the point, instead just snapping up another chair

“Have either of you been paying attention?” Lucifer asked, this time addressing both Gabriel and Paimon and Gabriel responded with an amused ‘No’, laughing as Lucifer tried to look serious.  No one could look serious when you knew exactly what they had been up to in the past day or so, bonds were so easy to tease.  To sink this home Gabriel winked suggestively and Lucifer dropped the glare, instead picking at his bottle. “Fine.  We were talking about the horsemen.  That is a topic you want to be involved with, yes?”

“Certainly.  Are you going to raise Death?” Gabriel asked, belatedly realizing that the humans probably wouldn’t be too pleased, and he wasn’t sure if Lucifer had told them about that.  Ah well, they’d just have to deal.  He glanced over at them and was surprised to see that while most of the hunters just looked troubled at his words, Sam was glaring as his gaze shifted between Gabriel and Paimon.  Really, the interspecies chatting wasn’t _that_ bad.

“I still think that it’s a bad idea” Bobby muttered, taking a swig from his own beer which Gabriel guessed Lucifer had gotten him.  “It could make sense, but it’s a bad idea.”

Lucifer pointed at him, raising an eyebrow “It _does_ make sense.  Right now there are a bunch of souls in hell just sitting around.  That space could be better used, we’d barely need half of it for souls that are changing levels.”

“Better used?” Jo asked softly, the girl really had something against Dean being Lucifer, Gabriel mused.  There had totally been something there

“We need to install nicer showers” Paimon explained, his voice completely serious.  “The water pressure in the ones we have now is shit.”

“You have showers in hell?” Gabriel asked, adding to the conversation and pushing it to go further

“Oh yes, they’re lovely things, the pressure aside.  And they’re a bit small.  But other than that, yup.  We’ve got them” Paimon confirmed as his poker face slipped and a small grin curled his lips

“Enough joking around!” Sam snapped, glaring at Paimon and ignoring Gabriel “If we’re talking about this now, we should actually talk, we don’t need you two talking about showers.”

“Why does everyone think I’m fucking their unrequited loves?” Paimon mumbled just loud enough to be heard and laughed as Sam turned red and sputtered out denials.  Gabriel tilted his head and curiously watched Sam, this was new.  Before he could comment though, Lucifer swore loudly and there was the sound of wings.  Gabriel whipped his head around to stare in surprise at the empty armchair, Lucifer’s beer abandoned on the table next to it.

“Lucifer what are you doing?” Paimon hissed, half standing up and the hunters instantly reached for their weapons, perturbed by the abrupt change of events.

“Like hell I’m not coming with you” Paimon responded to a mental conversation only he could hear and spread his wings.  The archdemon was in Lucifer’s garrison, so Gabriel supposed that’s who he was talking to.  Meaning to follow wherever Lucifer had gone Gabriel spread his own wings and disappeared only to hit a barrier and reappear right back where he had been sitting.

“Hey!” Gabriel cried out indignantly, frowning at the ceiling as if it would do any good.  Paimon let out a similarly pissed off noise from beside him and Gabriel concluded that Lucifer had locked them all in when he left.  With this eye-opener he turned to question the archdemon “What did he say?”

“What’s happening?” Sam asked, brandishing his demon killing knife and looking uncertain as to whether or not he should be attacking any of the supernatural entities still in the room, but Gabriel ignored him, waiting to hear what the heck was up.  Times like this and he almost missed the old means of communication between the archangels.

Paimon met Gabriel’s eyes, his expression now turning to one of surprise and worry, giving Gabriel pause and making him brace himself.  Knowing Lucifer it could be anything, but hopefully considering Paimon wasn’t in on it the devil wasn’t doing anything too detrimental.  Paimon tilted his head to the side and his eyes glazed slightly as he sat back down.  Gabriel recognized that look, Paimon was trying to create a link with his garrison leader, which meant that this fell into the category of undeniably not good.  Distantly the archdemon answered Gabriel’s question, his focus outside of the room.

“Raphael is attacking Castiel’s garrison.”


	16. Flying on Missing Wings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Castiel calls him for help, Lucifer arrives in Castiel's garrison to fight Raphael and drag the other archangel down to hell and a place Lucifer's very intimately familiar with.

_“Raphael’s here, Lucifer help!”_ Cas’ voice cut across Paimon’s and Lucifer swore, not even pausing to ask questions but flying towards his mate.  He only took a split second to create a wall as he left around Bobby’s house to ensure Raphael wouldn’t go there instead.

_“Lucifer what are you doing?”_ Paimon hit the wall while trying to follow him and Lucifer only spared breath to inform him curtly that he wasn’t going with Lucifer.  Naturally Paimon complained about that but Lucifer ignored him, weaving around the wards set up around Cas’ garrison and then just following the path Raphael had torn through them.  He landed to find one dead angel on the ground and a couple more leaking grace but still trying to fight.  Cas was barely holding his own against Raphael and was already wounded, fighting Gabriel hadn’t been a good reference for a fight with Raphael.  Gabriel was the youngest archangel and therefore least powerful, plus he hadn’t been actually trying to _kill_ Cas. 

With another beat Lucifer was in-between Cas and Raphael, his wings spread in threat and sword drawn to catch a strike meant for Cas and to allow his mate space to retreat.

“Lucifer” Raphael hissed, filling the name with malice.  Lucifer didn’t bother greeting Raphael, instead slashing forwards against the archangel’s wing.  Electricity poured from them in an attempt to deflect Lucifer and he hissed in pain as it traveled up his sword and sparked into his hand.  Due to his stay in hell however, his sword had become mostly obsidian so it wasn’t as effective as it normally would be.  Wings were always a point of attack in longer angel fights.  It’s why the archangels had weapons for wings. 

Distantly he could feel Paimon slip in behind his eyes to watch what was happening, but disregarded it.  The archdemon couldn’t be hurt by doing it, so Lucifer had nothing against it happening.  Only a couple seconds of fighting and a pained cry from a sideline angel later and Lucifer realized just how much collateral damage there’d be to Cas’ garrison if they fought here.  Already one of the walls had been destroyed, an angel only just making it out of the way and avoiding being killed.  Evidently having recognized Lucifer’s desire to keep them alive, Raphael stepped back out of Lucifer’s reach, swiping a wing forwards to force Lucifer to cover with his own.  It was an infinitesimal amount of inattention but by the time Lucifer had looked up again, Raphael was back on Cas, his mate desperately fighting to get away as Raphael grabbed a handful of his wings and _wrenched_. 

Letting out a roar that wasn’t even trying to be human Lucifer slammed into the other archangel and unsheathed his own wings, catching Raphael’s vessel’s arm and tearing it half off lengthwise.  It wouldn’t actually hurt Raphael but it gave Lucifer a free path to the other archangel’s grace and he released more of his true form, burying claws into whatever part of Raphael he could reach and pulling.  He didn’t make it far before Raphael realized what he was trying to do and started struggling.  His blade caught on one of Lucifer’s larger wings, but Lucifer ignored the pain, managing to use it to his advantage and impale Raphael’s true form with the spike. 

“I can smell you all over your pet” Raphael spat, sweeping forwards with his blade but missing Lucifer.  “I knew you had debased yourself so, but find it amusing that you would drag such a useless angel down with you.  The fact that you were so desperate that you had to make your own from waste, it’s pathetic.”

Fury at the slight against Cas burned through Lucifer and he yanked on Raphael, this time successfully pulling them into the place between.  He was not _just_ going to kill the one who had already killed his mate and just tried again.  Some of Lucifer’s intention must’ve become clear as the other archangel’s eyes widened and he redoubled his efforts.  As a higher rank of angel they could both take their true form without dropping their vessel unless absolutely necessary and Lucifer did that now, integrating his meat-suit into his many headed draconic form and biting down on as many of Raphael’s right wings as he could reach, ignoring the current that ran up into his heads and repeating the action Raphael had done to his mate, far more successful as he wasn’t interrupted and was able to tear the wings completely off. 

Instantly Raphael dropped his vessel, bleeding grace dangerously and gorging a deep kilometer gap into the place between as his grace exploded, coloring it a permanent white with sparks of electricity.  Using this moment of inattention and forcing himself to move, Lucifer called hell, asking the region to take them both down.  At the first touch of hellfire Raphael seemed to choke—as much as an angelic being could—and recommitted himself to the goal of taking off Lucifer’s wings.  The arrival of two fighting archangels in hell drew out many demons, but Lucifer disregarded them into the part of his mind concentrating on Paimon, Gabriel and everyone else who was vying for his attention.  Cas hadn’t spoken again yet.

_“BELONG”_ Lucifer let the command pour into hell’s frame of being and instantly it started to rearrange itself physically, helping Lucifer with the struggling Raphael who was still lashing out with his sword.  Absolute pain flooded through Lucifer and he was dimly aware of Paimon shouting at him as the world seemed to be covered in fog.  Nonetheless he continued to fly Raphael downwards and was slightly confused as to why they were in Cold, that wing wasn’t anywhere near the path Lucifer should be taking.  Then he noticed fire in the distance and realized they were actually in Heat, which meant…

Oh, Lucifer thought hazily, Raphael just broke my wing, maybe plural.  Then the ground beneath them opened up and Lucifer had to release Raphael and focus on flying back up and away from the pull of his cage as it tried to suck them both in.  With a final scream that vaporized the foolish demons who had followed them, Raphael was gone, missing half of his wings and trapped in Lucifer’s cage.  Lucifer could still see his grace as the cage wasn’t closed yet, but there was no getting out for him now.  Lucifer had spent long enough down there trying to figure out how to get out, and when the cage was actively trying to keep someone in, it was really good at it.  Good thing too, seeing as that’s how he had cut his grace off into Dean.

_“Focus!”_ Paimon was yelling somewhere in his head and Lucifer wanted to tell him to shut up, but even in his daze he knew there was something important there.  Paimon was still hitching a ride in Lucifer’s sight, so he must be seeing the cage… The cage!

“Shit” Lucifer swore, snapping back into normalcy.  Turning back around and lunging forwards he bit down on any stable thing he could reach in an attempt to try and keep himself out of the cage.  With the rest of his heads he commanded it to close, something that was harder than it looked as his cage still wanted him.  But he needed to get back to Cas so he forced it, letting hell pull Heat back over the cover and soaring upwards on wings that stung with each beat and didn’t take him as fast as he was used to.  Landing back at Cas’ garrison and tucking himself back into his vessel he was met with the destruction his and Raphael’s fight had caused, but only had eyes for his mate and checking his wellbeing. 

Cas was leaning back up against the wall, ordering and sending angels off on various assignments and Lucifer felt a small burst of pride that Cas could concentrate on something as mundane as _orders_ with what looked like broken wings and anger at Raphael that he had to.  Cas huffed in surprise, then hissed in pain as Lucifer strode up and lightly felt the bent wings, assessing a couple of them to his assumed diagnoses of broken.  Oh, Raphael was going to fucking _pay_.  No one hurt Cas and got away with it.

“No, Lucifer you need to heal your wings first” Cas protested, but Lucifer ignored him, pouring grace into Cas’ wings and straightening them.  He felt like his back was on fire but that could wait, Cas was first priority.

_“Let us out”_ Paimon demanded and Lucifer abruptly remembered the wall he built before leaving

“I think they need your permission to come here.” He murmured, still working on healing Cas’ wings.  Wings were interesting things, flows of grace covered in a protective substance, in Cas’ case they were shadow.  Healing them was more a task of recreating that substance and wrapping it around the wings, then pouring grace behind it.  Cas would fuse the addition on automatically.  Moving on from Cas’ wings to the multiple leaking gashes he was pleased to see that nothing would even scar.  Cas wouldn’t be able to put too much strain on his wings for quite a while, so no long trips, but he’d make a full recovery.  Much more than most beings could say after a fight with an archangel

“They have permission, but you need to heal yourself.” Cas insisted, teasing his wings out of Lucifer’s grasp and meeting the glare thrown his way with one of his own.  Lucifer snorted at Cas’ stubbornness but released the wall and resigned himself to focusing on his own injuries later.  Needing to appease both his human and angelic side first he stepped forwards to kiss his mate and pull him close, wrapping his wings around Cas to assure himself his mate was alright.

“That little fucker” Lucifer hissed into Cas’ neck as he scented him, “I’m going to tear the rest of his wings off one by one”

Cas made a small noncommittal noise, evidently agreeing with Lucifer but still iffy about harming one of their brothers.  As far as Lucifer was concerned there was nothing too harsh in retribution for hurting Cas and he could tell his mate knew exactly what he was thinking.  They both decided to ignore it for the moment as Cas curved their wings together and pressed his lips to Lucifer’s temple, doing wonders in calming the archangel.  The fluttering of wings heralded new arrivals and Lucifer—still clutching Cas to himself—turned his head and extended his grace to feel Gabriel, Paimon, Sam and Bobby before they landed.  Looked like the rest of the hunters had left. 

“Holy shit Lucifer!” Paimon exclaimed, taking a step forwards but then noticing the rest of the angels and changing course to wait next to Gabriel.  “Dude, you’re missing some wings”

Curious at this new bit of information and still feeling the agony from Raphael breaking his wings, he spread them and reluctantly let go of Cas, who was also watching Lucifer and looking slightly sick.  Turning and still in the haze that covered anything unrelated to Cas, he noticed Paimon was right, Raphael hadn’t broken his wings, he had actually managed to _cut_ them off.

“Oh” He breathed, curling in all that was left of the four wings that were no longer there.  Detachedly he assessed them, coming to the conclusion that one was still there enough to grow back, but the rest were lost causes, just jut outs of bone shaped ice that were letting out a constant bleed of grace.  In all his focus on getting to Cas, Lucifer hadn’t even noticed how bad it was.  Reaching awkwardly behind him, Lucifer grasped hold of the first stump and let ice cover up the wound, separately creating a temporary fix on all of them so he could leave his focus on Cas and his garrison.

“You didn’t kill Raphael” Gabriel commented after Lucifer had sealed off the last wing, all amusement gone from his tone

Lucifer shook his head, daring Gabriel to argue. “No, I threw him into my cage.”

From Paimon’s pleased noise Lucifer knew he understood, Gabriel scowled, but Lucifer was unrepentant.  So he didn’t want the apocalypse, didn’t mean he was going to take up knitting and planting flowers.  He was the fucking devil, being Dean had just made him hugely protective, didn’t take away his claws.

“What do you need us to do?” Sam asked, being the usual voice of reason and _unusually_ making Gabriel drop the scowl and stay silent.  Sam was looking between Lucifer and Cas like he wasn’t sure who to ask and the angels gathered copied his uncertainty.  Inwardly Lucifer scowled though he could understand their hesitance.  Even with Cas being their garrison leader, Cas was in Lucifer’s garrison and Lucifer and Gabriel were both archangels. 

To cease the confusion, Lucifer stepped back from Cas and tilted his head in deference.  “Castiel?”

Cas flashed a grateful smile, still looking concerned for him, but straightened to speak, looking at Sam.  “You can’t do anything with healing, but we do need help in collecting and stocking this place like a garrison.  I’ll get Rachael to send a few angels out to start collecting necessary items, you and Bobby will sort and organize them somewhere in the house, you can talk to Rachel about where.  Lucifer and Paimon, go out and draw protection sigils and wards, I don’t want you flying Lucifer so you’ll just do this house.  Gabriel, can you go with Paimon?”

Lucifer narrowed his eyes at the command not to fly, but stuck to his compliance.  Paimon on the other hand laughed and strolled languidly over to Gabriel.

“Don’t smite me, but if you’re accepting Castiel’s superiority in this matter, then we should be off and following orders.” He drawled and, ever the touchy-feely one, swung an arm around Gabriel’s shoulders, patting the archangel so that now Lucifer had to stifle a snort of amusement.  From Gabriel’s returned scowl, he failed horribly.  However with Paimon’s next sentence the trademark smirk returned with amusement at Lucifer’s expense and the way the humans faces went red. “I’m not sure how it customarily is with those two, but someone’s got to be the Dom in all these relationships.”

“Oh I’m pretty sure it’s normally the other way around.” Gabriel laughed, throwing a leer towards Lucifer and Cas and the two of them disappeared in a flutter of wings.  Lucifer bit his lip to keep from reacting and Cas blushed lightly as Sam made a dismayed sound.  Damn little brothers, a comment like that at any other time wouldn’t give him pause, but since Raphael’s attack all he wanted to do was take his mate again and cover himself in Cas’ scent.  Now was really not a good time.  Another angel arrived at their departure and Lucifer only let them do so because they had Cas’ mark, evidently part of his garrison. 

“Castiel” The new arrival greeted and Cas acknowledged her as Rachael, sending Bobby and Sam to go along with her.  Once upon a lifetime ago, Lucifer would’ve never let Sam out of his sight when around so many unknowns, but now he was secretly thankful for Cas’ orders as they let him keep an eye on his mate. Sam was a big boy, he could handle himself, mostly.  Plus, he hadn’t been the one attacked by an archangel.  If he had, Lucifer’d be just as protective, though definitely not as affectionate.  Accepting that everything was going about as it should and he was only holding things up by standing there, Lucifer walked over to the nearest wall, allowing himself the small comfort of spreading his grace out and feeling Cas move about with his garrison. 

Wanting to give them as much protection as possible, Lucifer used his own blood and grace to draw on the walls, occasionally changing the theme to carve deep marks into the floors.  After a quick conversation with Cas he added his, Paimon’s and Gabriel’s sigils into the various markings.  The names would allow both them and their garrisons in, so he had to add another mark to Paimon’s, not wanting the archdemons many demon garrisons to be able to get into Cas’.  Wards against humans followed, and carvings that would trap almost any being, living or not.  The mixture of wards straight from both heaven and hell looked quite odd, clashing between the polar opposites but working.  

It was almost funny, and would’ve been if not for the reasoning behind it, but not one of Cas’ angels knew how to react around him.  He hadn’t known any of them before his fall and wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.  It made sense that they didn’t know what to do. He was the devil, every angel hated him as much as they had loved him.  He’d used to be the Morning Star, but betrayed their Father and was now irrevocably tainted.  A taint that Cas carried since Lucifer had given his mate so much of his grace, but seeing the real thing was very different.  He knew the angels could also smell Lucifer’s come groomed into Cas’ wings, so they would know the two of them were mates.  What with the whole archangel thing and Lucifer’s submission, they must be incredibly confused.  A few actually approached him for further orders, but their graces had twined in uncertainty and unease.

They spent the whole day in this odd dance, fixing things, cleaning, warding and creating a garrison.  It was delicately wonderful.  Lucifer could feel both members of his garrison close by, plus both his younger brothers and his human father substitute.  Take away the agonizing pain from his wings and it’d be completely flawless.  The longer he spent out of hell and without healing himself the more painfully his wings reminded him that four were missing.  Even so, he didn’t stop, wanting to provide for Cas as much as he could. 

At one point Lucifer found himself in the same room as his mate, alone and grinning like a fool as Cas used the isolation to press Lucifer up against the wall and very thoroughly kiss him.  The assertion from his mate was sexy as hell and oh hey, new kink, apparently he could be on either side of things and still incredibly enjoy it.  Filing that bit of information away for later, Lucifer decided he would introduce Cas to more physical matters when there wasn’t a possibility of Cas’ angels popping in unannounced.

For now, despite the pain of his missing limbs, damage from Raphael’s attack, and the uncertainty about the apocalypse hanging above their heads, it was as perfect as it could get.  He had the seraph he loved with him, safe and well, and he was happy.

 


	17. Those Flashy Angels With Their Ill-advised Backup Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After deciding (AKA, being forced) to take a break, Lucifer wanders around hell and runs into a familiar face with perfect timing. Lucifer knows he's far from indestructible, but maybe this demon can help him with a backup plan.

Missing wings sucked.  Really, seriously sucked, Lucifer decided as he walked through hell, occasionally kicking a piece of glass or a rock out of his way.  They hurt like hell—literally—and jarred painfully when he forgot for a moment.  He had frozen over them so that they were pointed and could still be used as weapons, but left the one that would grow back alone except to make sure he wasn’t leaking grace everywhere.  But they hurt! It felt like he had phantom limbs that were slowly being crushed, the regrowing one not tempering the pain even with the amount grown back so far.

It had been two earth days since Raphael's attack, and after all was said and done--Cas' garrison fixed up, a system between it and Bobby's house revised--he had been sent down to hell to take a break.  It was definitely not something he'd normally have done, but Paimon, Cas and Sam had ganged up on him with their puppy dog eyes and demanded that he rest.  And really, Sam had joined with them, what the hell! He wasn't really friends with Cas and Paimon was a white-eye, but apparently it was worth it to make Lucifer not use his mangled wings.   All those convincing arguments that they'd all be working with Cas' garrison and none of the three of them would leave South Dakota, they'd pray if he was needed.  Lucifer could remember a time when nothing would've been enough to convince him to take a step back.  Then again, if he were still like that all three of them would probably be dead for one reason or another so it was probably for the best that he wasn't. Nevertheless, he was now forced to know what was happening by listening to garrison radio, tuning out the sounds of hell and letting a nicer song be the backdrop of his walk. 

A smile stretched across his face and he subconsciously puffed his wings as he recalled another way Cas had used to persuade him.  Angelic stamina was a brilliant thing when no one was only still awake ‘cause of adrenalin.  Making an effort to smooth his feathers again he couldn’t resist sending a sideways glance at them, amused at the white tinge and different scent they now carried.  Because of all the commotion he and Cas hadn’t had the chance to talk about claiming, but that would come soon and Lucifer felt a flash of immature amusement at that unintentional innuendo.  They had done everything except the claiming, but Lucifer couldn’t wait for that last step.  The complete ownership of equal submission. 

Willing himself away from those thoughts so he wasn’t walking around with an erection, Lucifer turned his gaze to hell.  He had already been through Tension and Sharp, following both side paths and actual roads, ways for demons who couldn’t transport to get from place to place.  Most of the demons had been giving him a wide berth, lowering their eyes and acting perfectly submissive, no doubt afraid he would smite them all.  As far as any of them were concerned, a short time ago Lucifer had come careening down into hell, thrown an archangel into his old cage, left, then came back, tortured the archangel for a bit more than one hell month, and was now walking 'round with his wings out and a emotionless look on his face.  If Lucifer were a demon, he probably wouldn't get in his way either. 

Just to contradict Lucifer’s last thought though, a female black-eye broke off from the small amount of demons wandering down the street around him, ignoring how the others slowly dissolved into the landscape and spontaneously decided to take a different path when faced with this possibility of conflict.  Apparently the backlash from Lucifer’s wings being cut off culled out some of the more curious ones.  This particular demon looked confident in her stride but he still caught her hesitation.  A smirk crossed his face as he realized who it was.

  “Hello Meg” Lucifer drawled, continuing walking so that she had to fall into step beside him.  There were so many conflicting emotions and some nasty history regarding this demon, but she could also be very useful.

“Lucifer” Meg replied, and Lucifer could tell she was working her way up to starting a conversation.  It was almost funny, no one knew he had been Dean, so the ones he knew didn’t know what he already held against them.  Slightly unfair if you think about it. Meg could probably tell something was off though, what with Lucifer addressing her with her old vessels name. “The apocalypse has been put on hold?”

Well, Lucifer had to give it to her, she was blunt.  Probably someone he’d have killed without a thought before, but no need to think of what ifs. He smirked slightly, thinking about how to do this.  He’d had a failsafe running around in his head for a while now, something that’d be frowned upon by most of his friends, but perfect for a lone, kind of trust worthy demon.  He’d just have to figure out what would be the best way to get her to agree, shouldn’t be too hard “Now why would you ever think that?”

“I didn’t mean-” She blustered, but Lucifer cut her off before she could start trying to appease the complete archangel she thought he was.

“I’m actually curious as to what you lot have noticed, so do tell.  Vox Populi” Lucifer responded flippantly, continuing to stroll along like this was completely normal.

Meg hesitated and seemed to steal herself before answering.  Gotta give the demon some credit, messengers always got shot.  Or kicked into wells, but they didn’t actually have many in hell, had some, but there wasn’t exactly a large demand for that commodity. 

“You took Dean Winchester as a vessel but he was supposed to be Michaels, so he can’t be your true vessel.  You’re mated with the angel who used to follow around the Winchesters and you promoted him, but he was always Dean’s pet even though he rebelled.  You rearranged hell to release certain souls, you haven’t made any moves against heaven except for locking up and torturing Raphael, and you used to hate torturing any of your archangel siblings.  You haven’t said anything about continuing the apocalypse, just that it wouldn’t be on earth” Meg started well, but soon started to ramble, cutting short when Lucifer stopped walking.  He turned to face her and cocked his head to the side, evaluating and coincidently letting her stew in unease.  What to do, what to do…

“How well would you say you knew the Winchesters?” He finally asked, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully. 

“I possessed Sam once, so I know his mind from then.  I know more about him than Dean” Meg answered warily, skipping any actual information on how she knew them or what about. 

“But you’d still recognize Dean?” Lucifer prodded and Meg wordlessly nodded.  Satisfied with this answer, he turned in a different direction and began walking again, Meg a few steps behind before she caught up.  He didn’t exactly discourage conversation, but did nothing to encourage it, too busy thinking.

Lucifer knew that there was a good chance either he’d be forced to fight Michael and die—there was a reason Father had made it clear heaven would win the apocalypse—or one or more of his close friends would be killed.  There would also probably be a showdown, angels were nothing if not flashy.  So no, Lucifer wouldn’t be able to kill Michael if he wanted Earth to stay around, he wouldn’t be able to fight Michael if he wanted to stay alive himself, just a few big problems that made it clear Lucifer had no idea what to do.  Why couldn’t things be easy for once?  Luckily, Lucifer hadn’t been sitting around with his thumb up his ass for the past couple months in hell.  He had indeed taken one off to torture Raphael, but he had saved the rest of it for some careful planning.  His cage was full of Raphael and while it could possibly also hold Michael, the other archangel would be very hard to drag through hell.  Which left the one backup plan that had been going around in circle in Lucifer’s head for quite a while.  It was a terrible plan, one that was not only ill-advised and seriously detrimental to his health, but would keep everyone Lucifer cared for safe.  This whole mess was his fault, it only made sense for him to fix things.  If that meant a little sacrifice, he’d only too gladly do it.  Meg would be the perfect one to get him all the required instruments, no one would suspect a black-eye to be someone Lucifer entrusted such a big thing to.  She’d displayed a knack for self-preservation which Lucifer could use both to convince her and to his advantage.  If staying on Lucifer’s good side meant that she would live a long life, she’d do it.

Lucifer only stopped that train of thought once to make it clear that Meg should follow him onto his property, barely stopping a flinch when his wings reminded him of their not-thereness.  Thank Father Raphael hadn’t managed to take off Lucifer’s mates wings, Cas should never have to deal with the lack of balance.  Once away from prying eyes Lucifer started to subtly pay close attention, pushing plans and wings back in his mind.  As Dean he hadn’t really known the meaning of subtle, but Lucifer was quite good at it.  So when he led her through the meandering not path that went through positively associated settings and started to condense his grace back into what it had looked like as Deans soul, he saw every single confused and cagey look she sent him. 

When every last bit of his grace was hidden away and to any supernatural creature he was just the arrogant and loyal hunter he had been before, she finally snapped, hunching further in on herself, her true demonic smoke curling in fear.  “You can’t have been Dean, I just saw him a while ago”

“And yet” Lucifer said, stopping and letting his vessel fall back onto its muscle memory, erasing all traces of Lucifer from his stance and mannerisms, turning back into Dean.  Meg looked shell-shocked at the transition, no doubt remembering that the last time she saw Dean, she had been trying to get the demon inside Bobby to kill him.  If he had been Lucifer then, she’d be a burn on the ground.  If she didn’t respond correctly now, he could either kill her or wipe her memory and hint, hint, the second one wouldn’t be as fun. 

“We were only trying to kill Dean because he was Michael’s vessel.  We didn’t know you could possess him!”  Meg protested and Lucifer noted that she made all her comments plural, including the other demon who had been with her.  Spread the blame

“Now, now, no need to get defensive.” Lucifer admonished, still acting like Dean though the words were all Lucifer.  “I understand, you were just trying to help yourself.  You’re a demon, all of your kind have personal safety deeply ingrained into your personality.  Well, what few of you actually have personalities.  Anyways, I really couldn’t really care less.  I know that you would do whatever you could to make sure you stay alive.  If that meant betraying me, you’d do it in a heartbeat”

Meg opened her mouth to reply but Lucifer waved his hand in a shushing gesture, ignoring the way she paled at his words.  “Now what I also know is that right now, helping me would be most beneficial for yourself and I actually do have a job you could do.”

She nodded at this, relaxing enough that she didn’t look like she was about to bolt at any moment.  Lucifer smirked in amusement.  Meg being here now was perfect timing, no one else would know what she was doing.  He could phrase it like it was—and it actually _was—_ something that would guarantee her safety if Lucifer died, but could reap her many benefits if he lived.  Either way, it would be her best bet to follow everything he told her.  Not that she would know that if he did need her to do this job, he probably wouldn’t be around to be the one to give her those benefits.  He’d have to leave a note or something.  

“I have a proposition for you.  I can tell you it now or you can leave.  If you leave I will not harm you, but if you decline I will have to modify your memory or kill you.  No one else can know about it” Lucifer said bluntly, already knowing which she’d choose.  While angels were flashy, in many matters demons were predictable.

“Alright” She acknowledged with a nod, her curiosity written all across her face.  Doing an individual and secret job for the king of hell held many possibilities of reward. “I’ll listen

“After my Father sent the humans out of the garden for rebelling against his one command, he changed a few things within the garden…” Lucifer started, detailing out exactly what he wanted her to do.  He neatly laid down the base details, giving her enough information but not too much.  Though he knew she wouldn’t decline or betray him, it would be best all-around for her not to know everything. Just what he needed and when he needed it by.  Finishing he confirmed the answer he knew would be in the affirmative, “So?”

Meg didn’t even waste a second in hesitation but gave a clear answer, showing teeth in the smile that had unrepentantly spread across her face during his explanation.  Excitement and anticipation painted her mannerisms. 

“I can’t wait to start.”


	18. Where Did All This Seaweed Come From?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucifer calms down, Castiel makes an addition to his garrison, and Paimon and Gabriel pull pranks. Not really. They're completely innocent of all transgressions. Promise.

Slowly Lucifer twisted the knife, burying it up to the hilt and listening dispassionately as his younger brother screamed.  The last time Lucifer had been here, in this makeshift stretch that dissolved the boundaries of his cage, he had been torturing Raphael in a fury, using everything he had ever learned to gain retribution for the harm brought to his mate.  This time he was treading a fine line, unnerved after raising and speaking with Death. 

After giving Meg the necessary tools for getting what he wanted, Lucifer had decided that even while resting he could actually be doing something useful.  That errant thought expanded into him finding alternative methods of raising Death until he found one he actually liked, wouldn’t do too much damage and wouldn’t bind Death so as to avoid his anger.  Surprisingly enough, it had actually worked.  Lucifer had spoken with Death and been abruptly reminded of how insignificant he really was, in the face of such a greater power.  Really great ego booster, Death was.  Anyways, the conversation had led to quite a few souls leaving hell and unfortunately, somehow managed to unearth a lot of stress Lucifer had previously managed to lock away.  Honestly, while Lucifer didn’t actually believe Death could reap God, he knew for a fact that the horseman could reap him and everyone he knew without a care in the world.  And the staid and bored attitude the guy had? Pretty much completely terrifying.

Lucifer had needed an outlet after that conversation, which had brought him to Raphael.  Doing something physical that was relatively mindless and could stabilize him.  Originally he had been debating on torturing some human souls, but then Castiel arrived, wanting to know how the whole deal with Death went.  This of course led to some _fantastic_ fucking and the irritating reminder of what Raphael had done to his mate, making his decision for him.  Castiel had gone back to his garrison, but Lucifer had gone to his cage.  Making a circle of holy fire, Lucifer warped one of the sides so he could see in.  His brother lifted his head from where it rested against his chest, pinned against the wall like a butterfly.

"Lucifer."  Raphael rasped, glaring fiercely. "Here to gloat?"

 

"Definitely not."  Lucifer answered softly.  With a twist of his wrist a silver sword dropped down into his hand.  "I'm here to do much worse."

 

He smiled.

 

 

~*~

 

“So we’ll be working with the humans” Rachael confirmed, a slight grimace on her face that Castiel could almost sympathize with.  He would probably think the idea only slightly less distasteful if it was any other humans, but he considered Sam and Bobby Singer good allies if not friends.  He wasn’t sure about the rest of the hunters who went in and out of Bobby’s house, but they couldn’t be terrible if the older hunter trusted them.

“As long as we need to.  We will have to decide what practices to keep when this apocalypse is over though.”  Castiel agreed.  They had already decided that they would be working with the hunters for spells that required human blood or interaction, but furthermore Castiel wanted to teach his garrison free will.  He knew he hadn’t yet gotten all the idiosyncrasies of free will learned yet, but he was a long ways from where he had been in the beginning.  His goal now was helping to get his garrison and Lucifer out of danger of the apocalypse, but as soon as it was over he’d be implementing free will. 

Castiel felt the ridiculous urge to snort at that thought, briefly blaming Lucifer for the habit and fondly recalling the habits Lucifer seemed to have picked up from Castiel himself.  Rachael mentioned a couple of angels who were looking for defensive weapons and then flew off, allowing Castiel to also leave.  He briefly checked on Lucifer, satisfied to feel him relatively normal before landing just outside his garrison borders, sending a quick prayer to Balthazar and waiting.

“Cassie!” Balthazar exclaimed in greeting, taking careful stock of the seraph and laughing.  “Look at your wings!”

Castiel cocked his head to the side in curiosity.  Lucifer had fixed up all the damage Raphael had done to his wings—completely neglecting himself, as Dean had always been known to do—so it couldn’t be that.  Then he recognized the emotion Balthazar was displaying and blushed.  Lucifer and Castiel had continued the practice of marking by grooming their seeds into each other’s wings and Castiel knew he smelled extremely strongly of the devil, not even mentioning the streaks of grace that had released at the same time.  The last time had been quite recent, after Lucifer raised Death.

“Hello Balthazar” Castiel glared admonishingly, knowing it wasn’t working at all as Balthazar just continued to laugh. 

“Always knew you had it in you, seducing an archangel” Balthazar chuckled, shaking his head

Attempting to get the topic back to something more comfortable and useful, Castiel changed it “Have you managed to acquire anything of use?”

He snorted at Castiel’s bluntness but nodded “A few things.  I take it you want me to give them to your garrison.”

“I want you to join my garrison.” Castiel countered, stepping closer to the other angel. “It won’t take long for heaven to realize you’ve been stealing from them and you’d be safer if you had the protection my garrison guarantees.  Even on the off-chance we can’t handle it Lucifer is backing us up.  Raphael attacked us two days ago and he got here in seconds, got Raphael out and locked him in Lucifer’s cage.  It would benefit you to join up”

Balthazar looked shocked at the information about Raphael but took it in stride, swirling alcohol around in a glass Castiel hadn’t noticed he was holding, but was practically a fixed part of Balthazar.  Slowly he sounded out, “And if I did, what would I be expected to do?”

Castiel smiled softly, “Nothing you aren’t doing now.  You would be on weapon obtaining duty if anyone complained”

Balthazar snorted at the idea of angels complaining, but finally caved as Castiel knew he would.  Balthazar was like a demon in that way, he had a very keen sense of self preservation. “Then alright, I’ll join your garrison.”

Castiel released his grace and curled it into Balthazar’s wings as he created his mark, blaming the satisfaction he felt on Lucifer rubbing off some of his possessiveness.   Balthazar shivered as he was reopened to garrison radio and spoke again before Castiel could.

“If you don’t mind, I’m not going to store the weapons here, but I may steal some protection ideas.” Balthazar announced, spreading his wings in preparation to fly.

“Set up a room for them anyways.  You don’t need to use it, but it’s always good to have a fallback.” Castiel requested and sent a mental message through garrison radio “I’ve asked Rachael to tell you the free rooms.”

Balthazar grinned fondly and disappeared without replying.  Castiel could hear Rachael and him conversing though and so wasn’t concerned. 

For a second Castiel just stood outside the borders, taking the chance to listen to his mate’s song where it wasn’t blurred by the many wards and protections they had up.  It was amazing to be able to think of Lucifer as his mate even though they probably had it coming since Castiel first raise him from perdition.  The fact that Dean turned out to be an archangel and still wanted Castiel was astounding.  A burst of a confused and discordant noise that humans would call cymbals shivered across Lucifer’s song and Castiel frowned, slightly worried.  Before he could comment however determination won out in a buildup of snare beats and uncommon triangles.  The bright pings from the triangles further threw Castiel off, but at least now he knew it was nothing bad.  Lucifer only sounded like the high notes of most angels when he had a purpose.  Deciding to leave him be, Castiel flew, stretching his wings but briefly stopping when he smelt something familiar, a clean ozone scent that reminded him of heaven.  He held still for a few moments, but the small was gone as quickly as it came.  Deciding it was nothing, Castiel left.

 

~*~

 

Paimon suppressed a laugh, attempting to look as innocent as possible while he denied Sam’s accusation, “I have no idea what you’re talking about”

Gabriel nodded guiltlessly beside him and Sam—who was standing in front of them looking like he had gone three rounds with some sort of seaweed monster—just pulled up that annoyed expression Lucifer referred to as _the bitchface_.

“Oh, so neither of you have any idea on why the cupboards of an abandoned house were filled with seawater.” Sam hissed in an angry tone.  The kid was seriously getting too worked up over things, Paimon decided.  It wasn’t either of their faults that someone had decided—since they were just taking a break by going around finding holy oil—it wouldn’t really be that bad of an idea to have some fun.  And maybe that idea of fun was going through a house in ancient Jerusalem and filling all the higher nooks and crannies with ocean water.  Maybe they had even set it so that everything would pour out all at once, as soon as Sam moved something.  But really, it definitely wasn’t Paimon and Gabriel.  They were far too somber to get up to such tricks.

“Well now that’s really odd” Gabriel agreed, narrowing his eyes as if thoughtful.  “Are you sure you didn’t just imagine it?”

Sam just sputtered without answer and Gabriel gave him mercy, grinning like a fool and clapping Sam on the back.  “It’s good for you Sammy boy!”

Sam just glared more and Paimon dissolved into peals of laughter as Gabriel’s face fell slightly.  Evidently the archangel was hoping for a better reaction.  Considering the way he had been acting around Sam for the past while that they’d all been stuck together, Paimon wouldn’t have been surprised if Gabriel even apologized.  It was freaking hilarious the amount of childish wooing that was going on.

“Don’t do it again” Sam finally said, relenting at Gabriel’s pout then glaring at Paimon who was still completely unrepentant. 

“But it was funny, you have to admit!” Paimon pressed, not willing to let it go as fast as Gabriel had.  It wasn’t that he wanted harm to befall Sam, it’s just there was just no lost loyalty between them.  Paimon found he was the equivalent of friends with the Gabriel, but other than him, Lucifer, Castiel and some members of Paimon’s garrison, Paimon didn’t see why he would ever need to expand that circle.

“Not when we’re hundreds of years in the past and could be targeted by angels from now _or_ our time.” Sam protested

“I solemnly swear that the next time you’re drenched in seawater that you will be in a familiar setting and the right time” Gabriel promised, somewhat ruining the supposed solemnity by barely repressing a grin, but making up for it by snapping his fingers and cleaning Sam off.

“Thanks” Sam muttered before turning back to the reason they were there. “Did you at least find any holy oil?”

“Two jars that were spilled in a few days during a heavy windstorm, they won’t be missed.” Gabriel announced in glee and Sam actually looked curious, forgetting the previous incident enough to open his mouth to reply

Sensing a long and drawn out conversation about time travel that Gabriel would probably indulge Sam in because the archangel was so fond of the hunter, Paimon quickly interjected. “If you two are going to speak about the future in past tense and don’t need me here, I’ll take the holy oil and be off”

He glanced at Gabriel as he said so and knew the archangel understood.  They replied in negative and Paimon was unable to resist leaving with a suggestive wink, amused at how quickly he could make Sam go red.  The three of them had been working on both defensive stuff and the other horsemen heaven had released, Famine and Pestilence, for a little while now.  Castiel’s garrison had gotten Pestilence but Gabriel, himself, Sam and Bobby had had to go after Famine.  Definitely not a pleasant experience, but one that gave Paimon _loads_ of teasing material.  Thinking about it, Gabriel really wasn’t the only five year-old here.

With a grin from his last thought, Paimon dipped through the place between, intent on going back to the present.  Time warped in it, twisting and turning with the galaxies that were created and then lost.  Instead of leaving right away however, he paused as he came across a section about a square kilometer big, covered in sparking electricity that stood out starkly against the black and colors of its surroundings.  He recognized it from what Heat looked—and still looks—like from Lucifer’s missing wings.  Evidently Raphael had lost some limbs here.  It was no longer so strange to be able to think of his previous kin without regret to their deaths and Paimon wondered briefly if Lucifer’d let him have a go at the archangel.  It was hard torturing someone inside a cage, but since it was Lucifer’s cage, he could do it.  Then he wondered if he actually did want a go at the archangel.  Gabriel had strictly avoided that topic, but seemed quite upset by it and Paimon didn’t want to do something that was so repulsive to one of his friends. 

Dismissing those thoughts as unimportant for now, Paimon continued to travel, springing forth a couple hundred years and watching the electricity flicker in and out of existence.  The place between was huge, so it was really unusual to find a particular part of it, but not unheard of.  He had just reached the present time when he felt another presence nearing him and he neatly folded his wings, dropping down onto one of the more solid jut outs and moving around slowly.  It’d be more visible if he was one of the only things not moving even with the static electricity around, and Paimon wasn’t particularly keen on fighting anything right now.  If it were an angel or demon he’d only be too glad, but considering the times they were in now, he doubted any would want to make an unguarded journey.  Slinking further into the darkness and wedging himself under a weird hammer like formation, Paimon watched the other being approach.  Oh, Michael. 

The archangel was one Paimon hadn’t seen in even longer than Raphael and they had never been particularly close before, but because of his proximity to Lucifer Paimon had often met up with him.  Michael was in his true form, but the archdemon had no doubts that Michael didn’t already have a vessel.  Probably one from the past since Dean was Lucifer and there were so few living Winchesters left.  Paimon wished the archangel was wearing a vessel though, it was hard enough to mask his demonic essences without being slowly burnt by grace.   The expression on Michael’s face as he examined the result of Raphael’s wings would have been heartbreaking if Paimon could still feel that emotion.  As it was with no loyalty to Michael in the first place, there was only the knowledge that it was sad.  Much like Michael had looked like when Lucifer rebelled and he had been given the task of throwing his brother down into hell. 

The glimpse of emotion was unnerving though, as it turned to one of rage, directed somewhere far off.  Twisting further underneath the hammer, Paimon tried not to think of why it was unnerving, spectacularly failing.  A really common practice in hell was torturing souls loved ones in front of them, illusions if they were in heaven, and real ones if they were in hell.  Michael wasn’t stupid, he’d know that if Lucifer got Raphael into the cage, he’d never see his brother again.  The required payback for this would be targeting those Lucifer loved—ignoring the fact that that had caused Raphael’s imprisonment in the first place.  And Paimon knew without any sense of misplaced self-worth that if Castiel or him were attacked, Lucifer would do whatever it took to get between them and harm’s way.  The archangel had never been like that previously and it had always been easier to protect him, but since being Dean, Lucifer had grown hugely protective.  The incidents with Castiel had shown that if nothing else.  Emotions got people killed, and they would do the same to Lucifer if he confronted Michael while protecting one of his own.  

Trying desperately to get away from the thought of Lucifer dying, Paimon looked back at the archangel for distraction.  Any expression he had shown was gone now and Michael moved away, taking the heat of his grace with him.  The archangel’s grace churned in surprise suddenly and he stopped as if he knew something was there, causing Paimon’s breath to catch.  Michael extended small tendrils of grace that searched around him, one coming dangerously close to where Paimon had now frozen.  Luckily it didn’t seem like the archangel planned to search long, for he started to reign in his grace soon after releasing it, the churning calming.  With one last long look at the aftermath of exploding grace, Michael was gone, returning to heaven without a backwards thought.  Paimon waited a while longer to make sure he had left, and then threw himself towards earth, landing just inside Castiel’s garrison’s house.  He gave the angels gathered a short glance to make sure none of them were actively posing a threat, before quickly passing them and entering a room filled with various angel and demon trappings, making sure to avoid the devils traps engrained in the floor and ceiling.  While neither them nor holy fire would hold him for long, they could still trap him and he really didn’t want to have to ask an angel to get him out. 

He set the jars down slightly harsher than he meant to, positioned himself with his back against the wall and just breathed.

 

"Of course we're immune, just not completely" Paimon heard Gabriel answer around a mouthful of candy.  The archdemon grinned and snuggled closer, tucking his head into Gabriel's side and peeking out to look at Sam.  The hunter looked desperate, blood around his mouth, handcuffed to a sink and unconsciously trying to get away.  The whole situation was really funny actually, a joke just missing the punch line.  An archangel, an archdemon and a hunter sitting in a motel room...

"Not completely." Sam repeated almost mockingly, licking his lips "But you can still kill Famine right? Lucifer killed War"

"Yes and that's cause that was Lucifer." Gabriel replied patronizingly.  Apparently Famine made both of them nasty, Paimon thought wonderingly, he had to make sure he didn’t say anything in case he also became bitchy. "I think we should just cut off his ring, much simpler"

"That would require you moving though" Paimon protested, returning to the conversation "And then I'd have to go find Castiel or Lucifer"

Gabriel snorted, "I still think it’s hilarious that you're starved for contact with anyone you're loyal to. It really doesn't make sense"

"Fuck off" Paimon growled, closing his eyes in irritation.  Maybe he should just go find one of the others, they'd probably be much more accommodating.  Well, at least Lucifer would.  Anyways, it’d be much nicer than sitting around with these two squabbling wolves.  Oh crap, now _he_ was getting bitchy.

The crunching of more candy along with Sam speaking again broke Paimon’s train of thought, the hunter’s voice low and like it was slipping out against his will "I can still taste it"

Gabriel slipped another sucker into his mouth and looked at Sam, Paimon also deciding that maybe he should pay attention too—Sam was watching Paimon like he was the candy Gabriel was eating.  Not that Paimon was too worried, it’s just that now that Paimon was thinking clearer, Lucifer wouldn’t be too happy if the hunter died or got even more hyped up on demon blood.

Before anyone knew that Famine was free, they had arrived in this town, hearing about some sort of angelic disturbance and Sam had gone off to talk to some people who could’ve known something about it.  Paimon had gotten back to the hotel which was Sam’s base of operation for the day, and the hunter had attacked him, high on a demon he had previously drained dry.  Since there was still no word about Famine, Paimon had fought back and probably would’ve killed Sam if Gabriel hadn’t shown up and yelled at the archdemon about Famine.  From there they had calmed down some, Gabriel handcuffed Sam to a sink and sat down to eat some snapped up candy, allowing Paimon to relax beside him. 

Gabriel jostled Paimon again out of his thoughts and the archdemon let out a whine of protest, shutting his mouth with a snap as he realized what he had done.  To Paimon’s further surprise, Gabriel stood up and walked over to Sam, pulling the sucker out of his own mouth and shoving it into Sam’s. Paimon gaped for a few seconds before recalling what they had been talking about and bursting into laughter.  Sam looked surprised, but he hasn't spat out the sucker, just staring as Gabriel ambled back over to Paimon and picked up a chocolate bar, nonchalant as you please.

"Dude! You just-" Paimon was cut off as Gabriel flicked him with grace, pointedly turning away though he still let Paimon sit near him.  Oh wow, this was perfectly hilarious, finally the punch line to the joke.  He stifled a giggle, determined to use this teasing material. 

His amusement earned him another cuff and Gabriel glared admonishingly, pretending to be serious.  “Now before Paimon starts being a dick, we should figure out how to deal with Famine.  Sam isn’t going, I doubt Paimon can go, and as long as I bring candy I could go.  So you two could just wait here-”

“You are not leaving me alone with him” Sam interrupted, speaking for the both of them and Paimon made sure to nod fiercely in agreement.  He could handle being in the same place as a horseman and being near Sam would just aggravate the hunters hunger.  Plus that would mean Paimon’d have to let Gabriel out of his sight, and then he would probably lead to him flying off and attaching himself to Castiel or Lucifer.  That could get kind of awkward, considering how much time those two were spending together and what activities that got up to.

“I can handle it, as long as I can see you I’ll be fine.” Paimon persuaded “I can deal with the demons and you can focus on the horseman”

“And you’ll be good on your own?” Gabriel asked Sam, concern a light undertone in his voice.  Paimon didn’t wait to hear Sam’s answer, instead standing up and moving away from Gabriel just to prove he could.  It wasn’t terrible to not be touching, but he did have to keep the archangel in his sights at all times.  That was what Paimon was starved for, the knowledge that his angels were safe.  It wasn’t that possessive drive that Lucifer had, but more of a reassurance that everyone Paimon was more than a little bit loyal to could take care of themselves and were able to ask if they needed help.  Lucifer, Castiel and Paimon’s garrisons were connected to him by garrison radios, so it actually worked out nicely that Gabriel was present.

Gabriel stood up at last, but instead of spreading his wings to fly, he walked over to Sam and crouched down in front of the hunter, retrieving a handful of candy from his pocket and putting it in Sam’s lap. “Now you can eat that”

“Uh, thanks” Sam tried, looking confused.  Gabriel just beamed for a second before he seemed to realize what he was doing the smile quickly turned into a cheeky grin.  He reached forwards and grabbed one of the candy pieces off of Sam’s lap, grinning like a wolf as he unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth.

“You don’t get that one though, I still like cherry better than you” Gabriel had safely managed to diffuse the situation with causing the reappearance of Sam’s bitchface, but Paimon made sure to get a jab at him as they spread wings for flight.

“It’s okay if you don’t give him cherry candy now, but at least get him a cherry ring pop for the wedding” Paimon advised, completely innocent, “Wouldn’t want him getting jealous of your mistress before you’re even married.”

 “Oh it’s all good, totally planned out.  Ring pops, Oreo ice cream cake, sugar cane, we’re even going to have frozen lemonade as a snack food, you know, for mingling.  And don’t even worry, jealousy won’t be an issue, we’re not inviting you” Gabriel replied without missing a beat, then hesitated “That is, if you can stand the time apart.  We do all know how clingy you can get.”

“That hurts that you want to separate us,” Paimon gasped, throwing a hand over his heart.  “You expect me to spend more time than I need to away from the gorgeous, mouth-watering and downright delectable frozen food called frozen lemonade?  I’m aghast at the very suggestion”

“Please stop talking about a wedding that’s never going to happen and go kill Famine” Sam begged, interrupting Gabriel who had been about to reply.

“Well now you’re wounding me!” Gabriel protested, taking a few staggering steps closer to Paimon. “I’m going to be left at the altar!  Oh demon-friend, whatever shall I do”

“It’ll be alright” Paimon hushed, greatly over exaggerating a flourish that summoned a handkerchief—a skill he had never actually used with handkerchiefs before but hey, there could be a first time for everything—which he handed over ever so delicately to the archangel.  Sam thumped his head against the wall behind him in exasperation as Gabriel took the handkerchief and loudly pretended to blow his nose, but Paimon was pleased to note that he looked like he was trying not to smile.  Ha.  No one could avoid the amusement of their antics for long. 

“Oh Sammy-boy, you have broken my heart, but I shall endeavor to move on if that is what you wish of me.  Farewell, and may your life be full of many women and vodka” Gabriel bowed, flicking his wings open at the same time and leaving, Paimon disappearing a moment after.  They landed next to a restaurant, the smell of human death heavy in the air, but not quite enough to settle Paimon’s mirth, so when Gabriel strolled into the building Famine was in, they were both still laughing. 

It probably would’ve been a better idea to calm down a little before facing Famine, but still, in relation to the time taken to bug Sam, cutting the horseman’s ring off was pretty swift.  There was a bunch of yapping about the apocalypse, attempts to play off of hungers,—leading to a few chocolate bars quickly consumed and an almost desperate grace delve to make sure no injures had been sustained—a couple helpful and traitorous demons who wanted to get this show on the road already, and then Famine was gone.  His ring in Gabriel’s possession.

“I’m not sure it worked” Gabriel announced, rolling the ring in-between his fingers. “I still feel the overwhelming urge to eat a couple bucket loads of candy.”

Paimon walked over to Gabriel very solemnly, reaching out and resting a comforting hand on the archangel’s shoulder. “Don’t fret dear Gabriel, I can assure you that it worked.  Nothing went wrong with Famine.  I’m afraid you just happen to have contracted a sweet tooth.  It was a long time ago, and is no longer a reversible disease.”

“Say it isn’t so!” Gabriel pleaded, shaking his head in despair at the affirmation in Paimon’s eyes. 

“There’s nothing we can do.  You’re just going to have to learn to live with it” Paimon said, removing his hand after a beat and stepping back to look around the restaurant, affecting giving Gabriel some space.

 The sound of crunching brought his attention back to the archangel, who now looked properly depressed—if not for the shining amusement in his eyes. He broke off another bite of the lollypop and dissolved into a grin before speaking.  “Guess there’s no reason to fight it then.”

 

~*~

 

Meg crowed in victory, scrambling backwards until she hit the wall, gasping heavily and in pain but feeling so _alive_.   She clutched her prize to her chest and watched as the creature in front of her died.  It was a medium sized beast, covered in a thick crab-like shell but the shape of a tree with long tangling limbs.  Eyes blinked and rolled from the base of each of its limbs and there was a gaping hole through its side where its largest branch used to attach, the branch she now held.  It might have survived the loss and still managed to kill her except for the angel blade Lucifer had given her to gank it with, one straight stab slipping under its shell and stabbing whatever the thing had for a soul.  It let out one last trumpeting bellow from an invisible mouth and died an anticlimactic death for all its struggles.  Going still and flaking away until a normal looking tree grew in front of her, albeit it was growing through thick cement and inside an active but currently vacant construction site, but mostly normal. 

Meg didn’t know what it was called, just that the branch she split open now held four fist sized egg shaped seeds that Lucifer needed.  Pulling them out she grimaced at the squelching noise and carefully wrapped them up in a cloth she had brought for this exact purpose.  Grabbing her bag and unceremonially throwing them in, she left the scene of the crime.  She walked causally away and onto the street, ignoring the sirens gradually coming closer, cops who arrived only when she was already many blocks away.  She entered a non-descript alleyway she had set up as a safety point and pushed over a bunch of old newspapers, sitting down on the plastic chair their absence revealed.

Only once she had made sure no one was around to see her did she reopen the bag and pull out the objects inside, placing them on her lap.  Of the twelve items Lucifer had told her to get she already had eight.  Due to the creature falling for her bait of hamburgers—hamburgers! Really?—she was far ahead of schedule.  The first thing she put away was a nondescript foot high vase, not even properly glazed or baked yet and so useless for holding water.  The second thing actually had a name and was the most precious thing on the list, a small silver clock with two dolphins jumping over it.  A time infused object that could do many different things.  It could force time to still around its holder and create a barrier with it, aging even immortal enemies, it could render the user invisible, act as a boost for power, it had many uses.  She couldn’t use it now—had to give it to Lucifer unexploited—but if things went south this would definitely be something she kept, not that she thought Lucifer would fail, it was just always good to keep a contingency  plan.  The third and fourth objects were thin obsidian feathers of a guard angel who was long gone.  Feathers that cost her quite a lot to retrieve, her shoulder decided to remind her as she winced.  Getting stabbed with an angel blade, even not fatally, seriously sucked.  Anyways, the last item, the four seeds.  Next thing was relatively easy, just a combination of different spices that she could get from a ‘seedbank’ the humans came up with.  She was going to the biggest one they had, a place called the Millennium Seed Bank Project.  The humans used it to preserve plant seeds in case of disasters or something like that.

Lucifer hadn’t told her exactly what he planned to do with any of the stuff, just explained that he needed it for a ritual to trap Michael with.   He planned on using the Garden of Eden, an area God Himself cordoned off limits.  Not the cover garden in heaven, but the actually garden Adam and Eve had lived in at the beginning of human history.  One God had broken off from the fabric of reality and then built a substitute for the angels in its place.  It was a great honor to be trusted with this job, especially since—from what information she had gathered—everyone else thought Lucifer’d be putting Michael in his cage alongside Raphael.  She would set everything up except the words, he’d tell her when it was time, she’d give it to him, Michael would be trapped, and then she would be allowed a place of luxury.  He had only given her the clipped up watered down version and she did have some suspicions on how he’d be getting Michael into the Garden, but it wasn’t her place to question.  Especially considering Lucifer had actually been playing as Dean when she threatened him.

And hadn’t that been a shock, Meg thought with no small measure of hindsight amusement, standing up and pulling a black ring off her finger.  She didn’t know how long Lucifer had been Dean but assumed, seeing as it had been long enough for him to get possessive of Castiel, that it had been a while.  That in and of itself was another funny thing, maybe it had even been Lucifer who had gotten Castiel to rebel against heaven.  Lucifer smelt like the seraph and showed all signs of completely owning Castiel, so the devil must’ve done something to Castiel and the rest of the hunters who had been with Dean.  Manipulation had always been a useful trick of his.

Getting back to her task, Meg twisted the ring, making it come apart in two halves.  One half she put back on her finger and the other she held to her mouth and whispered, recalling the name of the ridiculous human seedbank, up in the cold parts of earth.  The ring glowed white and she threw it up in the air, stepping back as it grew larger, opening up into a gateway that she promptly stepped through.  Once on the other side she grabbed the edges of the gateway and compressed it, returning it when ring sized back to her finger to meld with its other half.  An ingenious little creation it was, would kill anyone else who tried to go through it except for the person wearing its other half and was useful in general.  Hiking the bag higher up on her shoulder she glanced around the cold and large warehouse she had stepped into.  At the rate she was going she might actually be done before Michael attacked.  With a smile and a slight shiver in the cool air, she stepped forwards. 


	19. Shadows and Ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A comment of Raphael's spurs Lucifer on to acting on a long made decision. It's far past time to claim Castiel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Mild torture in the beginning. I deleted a good chunk of it in the last chapter, but decided to move this part instead of rewriting it.

“What was that?” Lucifer asked, leaning over Raphael and shifting his weight, delighting in the choked off scream that that motion gained him.

 It took a few seconds for Raphael to regain his composure, but he wasn’t an archangel for nothing, turning to look at Lucifer, eyes blazing.  “Michael is going to fight and kill you.  He will destroy you and that piece of filth that is your mate, along with everyone you endeavor to protect.” 

At the slight against Cas, Lucifer wrenched Raphael’s head up, smashing it back down on the ground, snarling in rage. “You don’t get to fucking talk about Cas, he’s a far better angel than you ever were.”

“You don’t, disagree that Michael will kill you.” Raphael gasped when he could speak again, coughing up blood as he fought through the daze. “You know your time is limited, and yet you spend it all down here instead of with Castiel.  I wonder why.”

Lucifer froze, one hand still twisted into Raphael’s hair and the other digging into the design he had so painstakingly carved into the wing bone. He knew Raphael was gaining the upper hand here, knew he was distracting Lucifer in order to stop the pain, but Lucifer couldn’t care less.  Raphael was locked in a cage where he would spend the rest of eternity, him winning this wouldn’t change things.  And he was right, Lucifer knew how things were going to end, he knew that it was highly unlikely he would survive this, and he hadn’t yet claimed Cas, didn’t have that bond or permanent mixture of grace. 

Without another word to Raphael, Lucifer stood up, pulling back without freeing Raphael from his bonds or acknowledging his continuing mockery.  Stepping as close to the holy fire as he could get, Lucifer let the cage unwarp, snapping back into its natural position.  The rush of wind put out the fire and Lucifer spread his wings, cleaning himself off with a quick though and then flying, leaving the cage far behind him as he sought out Cas.  The seraph was gliding around his garrison as if deciding on what to do next and Lucifer winged past him, letting their wings brush before dropping down just outside the protection. 

“Lucifer?” Cas asked, concern lacing his tone as he landed in front of the archangel. “Are you okay? You feel-”

Lucifer cut him off with a kiss, wrapping himself around his mate.  Joy sparked through him at their closeness, but too soon Cas was pulling back, trying to talk.

“What is it?”  Cas demanded, both his hands coming up to cup Lucifer’s face.

“I need to claim you” Lucifer said breathlessly, staring into Cas’ eyes.  Cas froze, but Lucifer didn’t have a chance to worry before the seraph was lunging forwards to kiss him and gasping out agreements.  Love spread through him at Cas’ acceptance, but it also came with impatience, he needed to take Cas now.

Before he could act on his desires however, Cas was stepping backwards, an honest smile crossing his face.  “Catch me”

With that Cas flew, disappearing between one beat and the next.  Lucifer laughed, caught off guard and following Cas into the Place Between a second later.  The seraph wheeled away through the ever changing darkness, though Lucifer succeeded in keeping sight of his mate.  This was a tradition in the claiming process, one admittedly he had forgotten about in the desire to be connected.

Cas was a more nimble flyer than Lucifer and about the same speed, but the archangel had better endurance.  As if responding to his thoughts, Cas dropped one of his wings slightly and spun, dipping into a cave and disappearing from sight.  Lucifer followed, the small space forcing him to keep his wings close.  He could feel the walls of the cave just scraping against his wings, but pieces of the walls shattered off instead of his feathers.  He had no idea how it worked, but during a true mating flight the different levels—heaven, hell, the place-between, void, purgatory and earth—wouldn’t really harm either angel, crumpling as if fragile when hit. 

The shattering created a beautiful tinkling noise that was echoed further on by Cas, helping the archangel map out the length of the cave.  A few seconds later and it stopped up ahead, shadows curling up and then out, Cas’ wings the only things visible.  Knowing he had fallen behind slightly, Lucifer automatically took a deep breath, curled his arms around his face and spread his wings completely at the same time as he lowered his secondaries.  The sudden burst of lift sent him upwards and smashing through the cave roof as it broke like delicate glass around him.  He reappeared back in the general open area and caught a glimpse of Cas’ surprised and flushed face before they were both off again, diving and swirling through the multitude of caves, bridges and random structures that littered the Place Between. 

It had been at least an hour of swift and evading flight tricks before Lucifer finally found an opening.  Cas was slowing somewhat—barely noticeable but it was still happening—and Lucifer had started to recognize the area around them, herding Cas until he knew where they were.  If he remembered correctly, there should be a cluster of roots around here somewhere...  Yes, Lucifer crowed inwardly in triumph, right there.  Quickly coming up with a plan he flew to the opposite side of Cas and let one of his wings smash through a thin geometric formation, grinning as the seraph instantly swung towards the root cluster, plunging down and into them.  Lucifer put on a quick burst of speed as Cas vanished and then let himself slam into the roots, shattering them and caving the whole thing down on his mate.  The indignant squawk told him he had succeeded and he delved a pair of wings down into the debris to flatten Cas to the ground.

The seraph started struggling and managed to get one wing free but Lucifer snaked his hand around Cas’ wing bone and gripped it, forcing Cas to still his free wing.  Nevertheless, Cas continued to resist and Lucifer straddled him, using all of wings now in his efforts to keeping Cas still.  The sound of muted laughter spurred Lucifer on and he dipped his head, allowing his dragons teeth to come out through his vessel and sinking them into the back of Cas’ neck, holding him there.  Instantly the seraph melted, completely surrendering to Lucifer.  He growled in pleasure and pulled back, lapping at the blood from his bite in apology.  Cas managed to turn his head around and caught Lucifer’s mouth in a kiss, moaning at the taste of his blood in the archangel’s mouth.

“Take me” The seraph ordered, rolling his hips back into Lucifer’s.  Lucifer’s grin was feral and he pulled back, loving the whine of protest Cas let out at his absence.  Continuing to hold Cas down, the archangel quickly maneuvered his mate onto his back so that he could see his face.  The movement caused a layer of ground to break beneath them, but neither paid attention to their abrupt fall and subsequent land. 

As soon as Lucifer released Cas’ wings the seraph wrapped his underneath Lucifer’s surrounding ones, creating a pocket enclosed by mixed feathers of shadow and ice.  Even that small space was too much however, and Cas wrapped his legs around Lucifer to pull their bodies together.  The archangel let out a moan and mouthed at Cas’ neck, loving the vibrations from the noises Cas was making, small breathy gasps of delight.  The bite in the back of Cas’ neck hadn’t healed yet and Lucifer added another one, sinking his teeth into the front of Cas’ neck this time.  Cas bared his throat and let out a strangled noise sounding somewhat like Lucifer’s name.  The seraph started clawing at Lucifer’s shirt and neither could care less when it ripped apart in Cas’ quest to get to skin. 

When Cas slapped his hand onto the handprint on Lucifer’s shoulder he could no longer hold on and released Cas’ neck, pulling back only far enough to claim his mate’s lips, their tongues dancing together.  While normally Lucifer would be content to let the next few moments dissolve into taking his time mapping Cas out, now he was impatient.  He yanked open Cas’ shirts with no more thought for ruining them then Cas had had previously.  Lucifer questioned inwardly why Cas wore so much clothing, but the thought was shredded with the jacket, pushed away and forgotten. 

This time it was Cas who pulled away, trailing wet kisses down Lucifer’s jaw and reaching one hand in-between them to tear at Lucifer’s jeans.  Cas opened them hastily and pulled out Lucifer’s cock, giving it a firm stroke that had the archangel groaning in satisfaction, eyes snapping shut and hips bucking forwards.  Cas had gotten amazing at this and the bastard knew it, Lucifer thought affectionately.  His eyes opened again when he felt Cas start to mouth his way down Lucifer’s chest, licking at a nipple and teasing the other one with his hand.  Lucifer barely managed coherent thought, but took the time to kick off his jeans and divest Cas of his as well.  Once they were naked Lucifer took both of their cocks in hand and stroked a few times, flicking his thumb over the tops to spread pre-come.  Cas let out a low whine at that and pulled back again, meeting Lucifer’s eyes.  Seemingly reading acquiesce or just deciding fuck it, Cas let his own true form slide out, brushing against Lucifer who was already partially out of his vessel.   The touch of his mates grace sent starbursts through his own, and Lucifer let his head fall back in pleasure.  A second later and pain shot through his throat, Cas’ wolf’s teeth sinking into Lucifer’s vessel and marking him as owned.  Had it been anyone else, Lucifer wouldn’t have tolerated it, but this was Cas, the seraph was allowed to claim Lucifer as thoroughly as Lucifer had claimed him.

Lucifer allowed Cas for a few seconds, but then twined his fingers into the seraphs hair, pulling back lightly and forcing Cas to release him.  Their mouths met again in a messy hungry kiss, both of them only partially in their vessels and clacking teeth and grace.  He pulled Cas up a bit, smoothing one hand underneath the seraph to cup his ass and groaning as their cocks rubbed. 

Summoning lube, Lucifer teased a finger around Cas’ hole, all of a sudden slowing and wanting to tease his mate.  Cas ground down impatiently, imploring, “Lucifer, fuck me.”

Lucifer groaned at Cas’ words, hearing the normally refined seraph swear was so incredibly sexy and obscene.  Retaliating to Cas’ demand, he pressed one finger inside Cas up to the knuckle, the harsh burn making Cas replicate Lucifer’s groan and press his forehead into Lucifer’s neck. 

“So fucking tight, and all mine.” Lucifer breathed in awe, pressing upwards till his entire finger was swallowed by Cas’ body.  He had been surprised to find out that Cas liked rough sex, but had absolutely no qualms there.  Cas didn’t usually need much preparation and now was no different, Lucifer pushing in a second finger and scissoring them when Cas started to fuck himself down on them.  He quickly added a third finger after that, amusement running through him.  “You’re so greedy Cas, want everything I give to you.” 

“Lucifer please!” Cas cried in reply, squirming down and then thrusting forwards into Lucifer’s hand.  All at once Lucifer removed both, letting Cas cling to him chuckling lightly as the seraph whined in displeasure. 

“Wait” Lucifer admonished, pulling his wings back and then weaving them into Cas’, allowing their graces to flow together.  Cas looked up from Lucifer’s neck and he was pleased to see that the seraph had been so lost in lust that he had forgotten that they could also do this.  Cas let his wings go immaterial to help Lucifer mesh them, both of their true forms loosing shape as they spread against each other. 

Only when Lucifer was satisfied with their wings did he grasp Cas’ thighs and lift him, the seraph’s hands automatically going to Lucifer’s shoulders.  Grabbing his cock, Lucifer slicked it up and then positioned himself at Cas’ entrance, slowly pressing in.  Cas’ mouth fell open at that first bit of stretch and Lucifer stopped, waiting for Cas to adjust some to the burn.  When Cas was on the verge of relaxing Lucifer pressed in more, making a smooth slide until he was fully bottomed out.  Gasping at the feel of warm heat all around his cock, Lucifer restarted the movements of his hands, jacking Cas off and rubbing his sides.  It wasn’t long before Cas was relaxing completely, grinding down and hissing out an order to move. 

Lucifer laughed at the demand, but complied anyways, pulling almost all the way out before slamming back in, hitting Cas’ prostrate with dead-on accuracy.  He released his grace almost completely now, forming it so it had substance and letting it pour into and around Cas, pressing quite a bit into Cas around his cock, loving the strangled noise he got from the extra penetration with no respite from the pounding.  He twined some more of his grace around Cas’ cock and let it brush and fondle his balls, leaving his hands free to map out the rest of his mates body.  Cas returned the favor, dipping his head down to press kisses and suck bites into Lucifer’s chest while he teased grace down Lucifer’s back and pressed it into his ass, pressing inwards and splitting Lucifer open with every backwards thrust he made.  Groaning at the feeling of fucking and being fucked by his mate, Lucifer reclaimed Cas’ mouth in a bruising kiss, the high of orgasm racing towards him.  In preparation for the claiming he finally allowed his grace to open up, letting Cas completely fill him in their true forms as Lucifer filled his vessel. A few more thrusts and they were both coming, pouring semen and grace onto and into each other as Lucifer hissed out a repeated mantra of ‘Mine!’.  Lucifer felt his wings reform through the bright light, the pain from taking up the same space suddenly as Cas’ being lost in orgasm.   Cas let out a muffled yell and clung tighter to Lucifer, breathing grace through their mouths. 

It could’ve only lasted seconds but it felt like years before they came down from the high, reinstating themselves to reality amidst broken shards of the material making up the place between, blood, sweat and semen.  Lucifer grunted as they hit the floor, somehow having both turned around and fallen in the past few seconds without him noticing.  The soft brush of a hand caused Lucifer to open his eyes again, propping himself up on his elbows and just taking in his mate.  Cas looked incredibly contented, still panting slightly and tracing the bite on Lucifer’s neck.  Looking up at Lucifer he grinned, a full blown smile that had warmth flowing through the archangel, a happiness though not his own, was one he completely shared.  They would always be able to feel each other’s emotions to some extent now.

“I love you Cas” Lucifer murmured, the soft sound all his strung out voice could take at the moment.

“I love you too” Cas replied, the words caught in an unintended yawn.  The surprise on his mate’s face from the unexpected action sent Lucifer into peals of laughter. 

He reached out and ran his thumb down Cas’ jaw, grinning like a fool. “Remember when I told you to never change?”

Cas nodded, tilting his head to the side “That was before you got your grace back”

“Ya” Lucifer acknowledged, his mind flashing back to that time when he was Dean and thinking he was going insane with a voice in his head. “Well I’m amending that statement, ‘cause while I loved you before as well, now you’re just so fucking perfect.  You can change as long as you’re still mine.”

Cas’ head dipped further to the side at the beginning of that statement, “You loved me when you were Dean?”

Lucifer blinked in surprise, the post orgasm haze making him a bit fuzzy.  Hadn’t he ever told Cas that? No, Lucifer mused, he supposed he hadn’t.  Best remedy that now then. “Yes, I think to some degree I’ve loved you since I first met you, but only really realized it after you were pulled back to heaven and then later in the green room.”

Cas examined Lucifer’s face for a few moments longer but then nodded, tucking his head down into Lucifer’s neck, apparently comfortable for sleep.  He stretched his wings first however, and Lucifer let out a hiss of pain as Cas pulled his back without much effort to first untangle them from Lucifer’s.   Slightly confused Lucifer slid his own away, his breath catching in his throat at the pain from their separation.  Cas noticed the pain too and sat up, raising one eyebrow questioningly.  All Lucifer could do in reply was nod at their wings, Cas turned around and was struck just as speechless.

Where before Lucifer had had wings of ice and Cas wings of shadow, now they were mixed together, taking grace from each other and incorporating them through their wings.  Cas’ wings were still mainly shadow, but now each feather had shafts of ice and the arches of his wings were covered in a protective layer of cold, ending in a long spike like Lucifer’s.  They were absolutely gorgeous, filled with contrast between bright blue and deep black, topped by deep midnight with shadow spikes.  Cas’ hand on one of his wings drew his attention away from Cas’ to his own, Lucifer’s own wings had also changed.  They mirrored the alterations to Cas’, shadow cores and dark veins running deeply through the ice arch’s, their lack of light refracting and bouncing through the ice.  Their bond would be unmistakable now, Lucifer smiled possessively, claiming’s were rarely ever this strong, usually wings didn’t even change.  And they rarely ever changed on an archangel because of the amount of surrender involved, usually it was the archangel’s mate whose wings differed.  From Cas’ expression Lucifer’s mate knew exactly how much it meant that Lucifer’s had changed as well.

Cas smiled and Lucifer nuzzled into his mate’s throat, letting out a pleased rumble when Cas bared his neck.  He sucked on the bite, drawing up more blood to the surface and again wrapping himself around his mate, though this time it wasn’t a prelude, just a comfort.

“Mine” He murmured softly, barely dredging up the energy required to fly them to hell and into Lucifer’s room, landing lightly on the bed.  Cas hummed softly at the sudden change in place, but settled back down, surprising Lucifer with his energy as the seraph pushed him away from Cas’ throat and curled up on his chest.  He let out an amused huff, but complied, enveloping Cas with his body and wings, automatically protecting his younger mate.

Just before Lucifer drifted off Cas made one last sleepy agreement, sending a burst of joy through him. “Yours.”


	20. Sorry Dear Brother, 'Go Fish'

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After leaving Famine's ring in its proper place, Gabriel goes back to Las Vegas for an unexpected meeting. This is not how long lost relatives should greet each other.

Gabriel grinned lazily, wandering over to the box and dropping Famines ring in it to join the other two.   Castiel had insisted that his garrison keep the rings and before anyone could argue the point had hid them, only allowing Gabriel and Rachael into the underwater cave that he chose as a storage place.  It made perfect sense for only three beings to know about it, as if anyone ever managed to get Deaths ring—which was impossible, but hey, worst case scenario thing here—they could potentially open Lucifer’s cage with them.  Considering there was still an archangel locked down there, that event would probably fall under the category of ‘not good’.  ‘specially if their side actually won this thing, having Raphael up and kicking after everyone had relaxed would really suck.

Gabriel turned back around to see the aforementioned angel nod once, Rachel’s vessel calm but her feathered wings set into one of impatience.  Rachel was kind of interesting, somehow managing to be mothering and still a completely submissive and proper angel.  If Gabriel still had a garrison he’d probably have wanted her in it, she’d be quite a useful member.  As it was she was already in Castiel’s garrison and he had no desire to have a garrison, so that idea was cut off even before it went to the drawing board.

“Well that was fun” Gabriel announced and laughed as she made the wing equivalent of rolling her eyes, curling in her outer primaries and then releasing them back to their original position.  She was one of the few angels who had bird-like wings, though hers were completely made out of bronze.  With Castiel’s influence she was picking up more of those human mannerisms, just converting them to angel-speak, if there was such a thing. “It was lovely flying with you, but I think I’ll be off now.”

“Thank you Gabriel” She responded stiffly, looking none too upset over his departure.  None of the angels knew how to react around him. 

True to his words, Gabriel spread his wings and flitted away, staying on earth and automatically taking a path back to a high rise in Las Vegas.  He landed in the middle of his suite, forgoing his customary sweep for intruders to flap onto the roof as he noticed the bursts of color that painted the room.  Freaking fireworks! He absolutely loved the bursts of colors that the humans made!  They were so utterly useless and yet awesome, matching up perfectly with many vices in his life. 

A long time ago right after Gabriel had gotten his current vessel he had met a firework maker.  A little bit of honey from an archangel and the man had been all too happy to teach Gabriel the secrets of the different chemical mixtures used to create the dazzling explosions.  Gabriel hadn’t made any in quite a long time though, preferring to snap up pre-made ones anytime he wanted a show.  Now watching a brilliant burst of purple that sparkled into gold streams he reconsidered it, perhaps he should make some more, what with all the new innovative colors and patterns they had now.  Maybe he could even show Sam how to make them, the hunter loved researching so there was no reason he wouldn’t want to learn how to make things explode in pretty colors.  He was still musing on this when a familiar voice spoke from beside him, sending the chilling realization through him that he probably should have made that customary sweep before getting distracted.  Like a freaking magpie, shiny colors.

“Hello brother” The newcomer greeted and Gabriel stepped back and to the side, drawing up his wings in a defensive position as he started as his brother for the first time in hundreds of years, Michael’s true form tucked away in a vessel of a young man but not quite managing to hide the brilliance of the oldest archangel. 

“What do you want Michael?” He hissed, wary even though Michael’s wings were resting in a calm position.  It hurt to see his brother, so much more now that they weren’t on the same side.  The last time Gabriel had seen Michael had been right before he left heaven, Michael had just thrown Lucifer into hell and then had drawn away like into a shell, ignoring everyone around him except to command them on what to do.

“You to come home” Michael answered easily, stepping closer to Gabriel. “You’ve been gone for such a long time, but now especially you need to come back to heaven.”

“And what would I come home to, letting you destroy the earth in your quest for paradise?” Gabriel snorted, forcing himself not to lean forwards into Michael’s wings of pure light.

“It is all happening like Father wanted it to.  The appropriate vessels were born, Lucifer is free, this is how it’s supposed to be.” Michael persuaded “It’ll bring paradise to everyone, the humans included”

“No this isn’t happening how Father would want.  This is you and Raphael growing bored and manipulating everyone.  You got impatient and decided to move things along yourself.” Gabriel retorted, lifting his chin “And I’m not going to let that happen, ‘cause Earth is pretty awesome without heavens lovely version of paradise.”

Michael narrowed his eyes and Gabriel tensed, noting the resignation in the other archangel’s wings.  “And so you fight with Lucifer.”

“I fight with humanity” Gabriel countered, “Lucifer just so happens to fights for them also.  If he didn’t then I’d be fighting him too.”

Michael shook his head almost sadly and Gabriel could almost believe that the other archangel felt it if not for the aggressive play of light in his wings.  “Lucifer cannot be trusted, he may fight for the humans now, but he’ll grow bored.  He already dragged Raphael down to hell and tore off his wings, what’s preventing him from doing the same to you when you make him angry?”

The knowledge of Lucifer having actually taken off Raphael’s wings rocked Gabriel, though he forced himself not to show it.  He knew that Raphael had taken off some of Lucifer’s wings and subconsciously he knew that Lucifer would have tortured Raphael, but Gabriel had tried not to think of that, forcing a blind eye to the violence still running rampant in his family. It would all be over soon if this worked out, just the terrible means to an end.  Still he couldn’t help but point out, “Raphael attacked Lucifer’s mate.  Lucifer was just protecting him.”

“Castiel” Michael stated listlessly, then coldly smiled.  Gabriel was confused for a second before he realized he had tensed further at Castiel’s name.  Evidently it had been a question that Gabriel had inadvertently confirmed.  “And do you think he’ll do the same for you?”

The bright glint of Michael’s angel sword being unsheathed was highly visible even against the backdrop of colored lights from the fireworks and Gabriel steeped back, his own sword slipping into his hand.  Thinking quickly he started to pray inside his head.  Michael would be able to hear any prayers to other angels, but perhaps a prayer to a demon would go unheard.

From the widening of the smile of Michaels face and the feel of many relatively unknown angels approaching, he’d rather doubt it.

 

~*~

 

“Go fish” Paimon responded, wriggling around to sit more comfortably and laughing at the long suffering look on the humans faces. 

“I still think you did something to rope us into this game” Bobby muttered under his breath as he picked up another card.  About halfway through all the excitement on ternary radio,—what with Lucifer and Castiel finally getting up to shenanigans—Paimon had been desperate for something else to concentrate on.  Seeing as Sam, Bobby and a couple other hunters who Paimon didn’t know were not busy, he had—humanly—conned them into playing a couple games of cards.  The noise was mostly over now but the games were still fun to play while Lucifer and Castiel chimed away in the back of his head, their songs in perfect synchronization and harmony. 

The hunters and Paimon had gone through a couple games of poker, spades, hearts and even gin rummy in the meantime.  Ellen and Jo had been there originally, but had disappeared somewhere in-between everyone losing the poker game spectacularly to Bobby and the hunter collecting his earnings.  Paimon had been forced to give up a conch shell, an albatross feather and a couple other random items he had come up with in place of money.  The hunter’s faces had been hilarious when he bet a hundred year old snowman ornament, and unnerved about the rock from hell, but really.  He’s a freaking archdemon who’s spent most of his life being tortured in hell between small bits of reprieve on earth.  What else was he going to have? American currency?

“Nope, I promise.  Completely one hundred percent legal in most courts on earth.” Paimon responded.  He didn’t think the other hunters knew he was a demon, best keep it that way.  A nameless hunter—Bart? Bill?—took his turn next and it continued around the circle of seven till it was Paimon’s turn again, him only losing an ace. 

“Alright, my turn.” Paimon announced gleefully, examining his cards for a second before turning to Sam. “Sam do you have any fours.”

Sam rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to answer but it was lost as Paimon’s head exploded into a white haze.  The cards fell limply from his hands and from the started yells of the hunters he could tell his eyes had gone white.  Someone was trying to talk to him, no, praying to him.  What the fuck? Paimon hadn’t been an angel in years, which really should’ve been long enough for his ability to hear prayers to disappear.  Distantly he could hear the start of an exorcism, immediately cut off, and knew Bobby was speaking angrily to him, but nothing registered.  Then after what seemed like years, the haze sorted itself into words.

_‘Dear Paimon who art from hell, inform Lucifer that Michael is in Las Vegas and is attempting to kill me.  Make sure he knows to—’_

Gabriel’s voice dropped off and the haze vanished, leaving Paimon to realize his eyes were still open as he returned mentally to Bobby’s house.  The place seriously looked like a tornado had hit it, a bookcase had fallen over, a table was smashed apart and Bobby and Sam were trying to get the hunters who didn’t know Paimon to stand down even as they focused on the archdemon. 

Ignoring everything else, Paimon yelled into the ternary radio. _‘Michael’s attacking Gabriel! They’re in Las Vegas and you guys have to get your asses over there.  Lucifer you need to fix this and really soon, all this attacking business is really getting cliché.  Apocalypse ho!’_

Once the message was sent and he could feel both Lucifer and Castiel reacting, Paimon stood up, attempting not to fall over and barked at the room at large.  Most hunters knew about the apocalypse, and if these didn’t then too bad for them. “Michael’s got Gabriel, Lucifer’s on his way and basically shit’s going down.”

“Is Gabriel okay?” Sam asked, forgetting all about the hunters yelling about Paimon. 

“He’ alive” Paimon stated flatly, uncertain of anything else and holding out both of his arms. He sent a general rallying call to his garrisons, alerting them to the situation.  “As soon as Lucifer shows up, Michael’s going to start putting in more angels, Castiel is getting his garrison ready and I’m calling all of mine.  If you’re all going to help us then get the fuck over here now.”

Sam stepped forwards immediately by this time Bobby’s voice held him back.  Gruffly reminding them that “We’re going to need weapons, most’ve them are already packed up”

Paimon let out a short snarl of rage, clenching his fists and letting them fall back down to his sides.  Glaring at the hunters who were _still_ pissing themselves over the white-eye in their midst Paimon exclaimed, “Well that means you too, now either hop to or I’m leaving you behind.  And Bobby and Sam you two need to hurry up or else my demon garrisons are going to start showing up in the middle of your house.”

There were a few more protests but Paimon ignored them, only flicking his hand slightly to stop one of the hunters from advancing too close.  Letting his eyes fall to half-mast, Paimon reached out to his garrisons, sending the feeling of Gabriel and Castiel’s graces.

_‘These two are angels working with us.  The second one has a garrison, they are not to be harmed.  The archangel Michael is fighting with the first one in Las Vegas.  I want four garrison’s to head over there, try and ward off incoming rival angels.  Only the greatly suicidal are allowed to try and help the first one I showed you by distracting Michael.’_ A flurry of messages returned as the garrison’s volunteered and convened on who would go.  Castiel sent a question and Paimon started directing garrisons to work with his angels, sorting them all so that the skills would balance out and be where they were needed.  Lucifer sent a quick message about a demon named Meg, one that the archangel evidently thought important, but for preparations Paimon discarded it.  By the time the hunters got their acts together—including four of the five unknown hunters—there were already five of his garrisons fighting in Las Vegas and more patrolling around it, on Lucifer’s prodding there were even quite a few directing people away and out of the city.  The last hunter who wasn’t helping was being told to get out of the house before they could leave, but before the argument could escalate Paimon stepped forwards and flew him to the nearest city, returning a moment later to grab the others. 

As soon as they landed in Las Vegas Paimon could tell that Lucifer’s plan of taking their fight to the place between was not going to work.  A street which used to be filled with huge casinos and hotels was leveled and both angels and demons were scattered around, fighting viciously.  The place was chaos.

“Get us to Gabriel!” Sam shouted in Paimon ear and he quickly waved over a black-eyed legate who he put in charge of the hunters before grabbing Sam’s arm to cut off his protests and flying to where he could feel Gabriel.  Luckily it wasn’t too far, but unluckily they landed in the path of an airborne chunk of concrete about two meters wide.  Paimon barely managed to flap them out of the way, gasping as he automatically rolled into a crouch, loosening his grip on Sam and looking around for Gabriel. 

It really didn’t take much to find the fighting archangels, both their wings were out and in full view, a whirl of slashing angel swords and bleeding grace.  Before Lucifer decided to derail the apocalypse Paimon had always thought that any archangel deaths would be quick, the cause of some trick or ambush perhaps.  Raphael’s trapping hadn’t taken that long, but even it had seemed to go on forever in relation to what Paimon had assumed.  Only now that he saw Michael and Gabriel fight did he really come to understand that this would _not_ be over quickly. 

Racing forwards and balancing on the toes of his feet, Paimon called softly to three of his sneakier garrisons, directing them to him and pleased when he noticed them appearing all around, hiding from either archangel. 

_‘Form a perimeter around them, don’t let any rivals pass.  Set up moveable traps and trips that we can follow them around with’_ He commanded.  The orders were followed without question and Paimon finally noticed Sam a little ways away, clutching a bloodied angel blade he must’ve had picked up.  Because Paimon was a powerful ex-angel archdemon and the leader of over two hundred garrisons of all ranking demons he knew all the best methods of attracting selective attention, he threw a small rock at the hunter.

“Paimon.” Sam started in surprise at the projectile but noticed the archdemon, quickly making his way over.  “What can we do?”

“I’m having some demons set themselves up around them.  Right now we’re just stopping anyone from interrupting until—” He was cut off as one of the recently made traps exploded and an angels grace flashed as it died on its way to the archangels.  Ducking down just enough that he could keep them both in view, Paimon continued. “Until Lucifer shows up.  He’s got a backup plan, don’t know the logistics, but then we’re going to try and move everyone into the place between.  Don’t ask questions about that.  Oh, you’ve got a soul.”

The last comment evidently surprised Sam but Paimon shook his head when the hunter opened his mouth to question.  He pointed at the archangels and whispered fiercely “When Lucifer gets here Gabriel’s going to need help, he’s younger than both Michael and Lucifer so he’s probably going to be more hurt than he is now.  If you don’t want him to die than the best thing you could do is let him siphon off energy from your soul.  It won’t permanently harm you, but it’ll help him quite a bit.”

Sam had paled slightly as this but nodded anyways. “Alright, and until then?”

“Shouldn’t be too long, but until then you’re going to attach yourself to one of my demons and help them ward off newcomers” Paimon decided, motioning for a red-eye named Hawk who was near to make her way over.  “This is Hawk, you guys are going to be each other’s shadows until Gabriel gets out”

“What are you going to do?” Sam asked as he stood.

Paimon let a feral grin slide across his face, stretching his wings into the visible dimension and flicking his two twisted bone-white blades into his hands. “I’m going to go help Gabriel.”


	21. Anywhere But Here

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After quick preparations, Castiel and Lucifer head out to Las Vegas to face Michael and his angels. Despite it being a long awaited reunion between two angels in love with the sound of their own voices, they're both content to let their swords do the talking. No, that's not an euphemism.

About ten minutes before Paimon shouted out the line that was getting so common into hell’s radio, Castiel had been extremely happy.  He had just woken up from an amazing sleep, still laying on top of his mate and letting out a steady purr as Lucifer ran his hands up and down Castiel’s back.  Castiel had stretched out his newly ice changed wings and rubbed them against Lucifer’s, pleased at the feeling and immersing himself in his mate.  Whereas usually after waking up they would’ve dissolved into rough and satisfying sex, the claiming had tired both of them out and so they had just taken the time to map out the new mixture of grace that presented them as mates.  Lucifer had been his customary possessive self, but Castiel had been surprised to find that he was also quite content with the marks Lucifer bore that showed Castiel’s claim.  The bite marks had healed while they slept and left no trace, but their wings left their bond unmistakable.  Normally with any angel-archangel mate bond only the angel would have their wings change to reflect the archangel.  That Lucifer’s wings had changed as well meant a ton, that the archangel was completely open to Castiel, baring everything.  So it had been extremely enjoyable to relearn his mate with Castiel’s marks on him.  The shadows that danced their way through Lucifer’s wings and the grace that was not the archangels own, but was so firmly entrenched that it could never be removed or burnt out.  It was the perfect prelude for a call to battle that Castiel didn’t want to face. 

Even now as Castiel sent out orders to his garrison, releasing weapons of God and placing angels to work with different garrisons of Paimon’s, he wished that they were far away from this mess, or better yet, that it all just went away without a fuss.  True, he may be cut off from heaven and spending a good chunk of his time in hell, but as he watched Lucifer grabbing a bunch of random objects he knew he was happy.  If only the two of them could be anywhere else.

Nevertheless, he couldn’t put this off forever.  “Have you gotten everything you need?”

Lucifer stopped, pausing for a moment before turning back to Castiel, dumping almost all the things he had picked up onto the bed before speaking, sending his message across hell’s radio.   _‘There’s a demon named Meg who will be arriving sometime during this.  I need her to have access to me, so make sure she’s protected.  It’s got to do with my back-up plan, don’t worry’_

Castiel frowned at the lack of information but Lucifer stepped up close to him, sliding the letter he still held into Castiel’s trench coat pocket and patting it twice.  He looked serious about it, unnerving the seraph. “You have to read that once this is all over.  Kay?”

“Why can’t you just tell me what it says?” Castiel asked

“Who says I’ll still have the courage to do so?” Lucifer countered, looking fond and pulling Castiel into a kiss before he could answer, driving all suspicions and thoughts of the letter from his mind.  In Castiel’s opinion the kiss was broken all too soon, but Lucifer only pulled back enough to rest their foreheads together, green gaze meeting blue.  “We should go.”

Castiel nodded, kissing Lucifer one last time before stepping back and holding out his hand.  Lucifer watched him for a few more seconds but then took it, the side of his mouth quirking up into a smile.  The moment of affection was there for what felt like an infinitesimal amount of time before the masks were pulled up in anticipation for the fight ahead.  Wings spread and the world around them changed, Castiel not surprised to find himself landing alone a little ways away from Michael in the midst of a zone of rubble.  Paimon and Gabriel were dancing around Michael, but neither one of them were doing well while Michael still looked fresh and vigorous.  Demons and angels struggled on the sidelines, but that was all Castiel took in before Lucifer arrived, pushing Michael back as he strode forwards.  Paimon and Gabriel looked far too grateful for the interruption and Castiel advanced to help them retreat.  Michael stilled at the arrival of his brother, watching Castiel, Gabriel and Paimon move away without saying anything.  The fighting groups around them seemed to almost fade away, all of Castiel’s focus on Lucifer and Michael.

Finally Michael turned to Lucifer, a casual smile on his face and his voice stayed completely calm and almost warm. “I wish I could say it was good to see you Lucifer”

Looking for all the world like acquaintances on the slightly higher spectrum of rivalry, Lucifer smiled back at his brother, a cold look in contrast to the one he had worn towards Castiel. “Likewise”

Castiel couldn’t hear the sound of the obsidian blade slipping into Lucifer’s hand over the din around them, but he could imagine it very well.  Watching his mate spread his wings and draw a blade on the oldest and strongest archangel Castiel once again wished they could be anywhere but here.

 

~*~

 

Seeing Michael again really sucked.  Not only because it meant that Lucifer had to fight him, but also because he wasn’t prepared to see his older brother again.  The good son, the one who did what Father wanted and received his love.  An archangel Lucifer wanted to tear apart, flay alive, gather up and cling to for even the smallest sense of comfort.  The brother who had been his everything second only to Father such a long time ago, and now another someone Lucifer had lost because of his own petty squabbling so long ago.  One of the worst parts about it was that Lucifer couldn’t say he regretted it.  If he had not been cast into his cage and tried to derail the angel’s plans by becoming Dean, he never would’ve had Castiel.  The seraph would have always just been another sibling to Lucifer, a cold and emotionless fighter.

“I’m truly sorry about this brother” Michael murmured, his voice pulling Lucifer back to the present, pitched so that only he could hear it.  “But you’ve already gone too far, let too many of our brothers become causalities.”

Lucifer’s smile turned sad and he nodded slightly to acknowledge the statement but not repent for it. There had been too many deaths already, Lucifer had to do this as quickly as possible so that there’d be no more.  First though, some stalling wouldn’t go amiss.  A statement “Then you know what happened to Raphael”

“You shouldn’t have done that to him.  Throwing him in your cage was childish” Michael said, his face darkening slightly in anger that Lucifer could sympathize with.  The only brother who stayed with you after the others left, and he was dragged down into hell by your other brother who had left heaven centuries before.  It was Raphael’s own fault, but that was beside the point.  Very carefully Lucifer stretched out his mind, reaching for the demon he had given a solo mission and hoping she was finished.  What had just been a failsafe was now the only plan they had.  Nothing else had potential to work well enough that it had been considered further than the drawing board.

“ ** _Have you gotten everything I asked you for?_** ” He sent to Meg before replying to Michael, both the archangel’s voices still quiet. “Well I wasn’t exactly in the right frame of mind you know.  What with Raphael trying to kill Cas.”

Now real anger passed Michael’s face as both him and Meg replied at the same time. “You only recently claimed him.  The two of you weren’t mates when Raphael attacked him.”

“ **Yes. Is it time?”**

“He still had my marks on him.  Raphael knew we’re together” Lucifer countered, knowing that his stalling time was growing shorter as Michael got angrier, perhaps this hadn’t been the best topic to bring up.  Had Lucifer never fell Michael would’ve been his mate.  Seeing Lucifer with a mix of Cas’ wings couldn’t be that pleasant

**_“Las Vegas, Michael is here.  Set everything up before arriving. Smash the clock holder and remove the clock itself.”_ **

And then the stalling time was up and Michael was lunging forwards, his wings burning like the sun and bringing screams from every demonic tinted being nearby.  Lucifer’s weapon met Michael’s in a ringing clash, stepping back and slicing forward easily, lashing out in a quickly deflected strike.

**“Should the pieces also go in the vase?”**

He retreated a few steps as Michael blasted him with grace, but created a wedge of cold that he sent his brothers way, slashing forwards at the same time with his wing to try and catch Michael with the newly shadowed tines.

**_“The holder goes in the vase and then the vase is covered and smashed.  I need the clock itself separately, which will start turning once the vase is broken.”_**  

He missed, but managed to force Michael to retreat somewhat.  The repeated attack of a blast of grace caught Lucifer off guard this time and he was thrown back into what used to be a casino.  Getting to his feet he noticed the bodies lying across chairs, the tables covered in blood and the abandoned chips scattered on the ground.

**“Finished and arrived, how do you want me to get you the clock?”**

Michael strode in through the hole Lucifer had made, paying no more attention to the dead humans than one would give a dead weed in a park.  His focus was all on Lucifer, ignoring the place around him and Lucifer decided to try and use that to his advantage.  He feinted with a wide lash of grace, intending and succeeding on bringing the building crashing down around them, hoping against hope that there was no one still alive in it.

**_“Wait outside the building that is falling, throw it too me when I see you”_ **

It wasn’t much of a plan, but Lucifer scrambled over and through the rubble, meeting Michael partway through and being stopped by his blade.

**“Ready** ”

A well positioned strike from Michael had Lucifer gasping in pain as his right arm was opened up, a mix of crimson blood and grace painting the air before joining the dust on the ground.  The pain lancing through him, Lucifer transferred him blade to the other hand and grabbed a handful of Michael’s wings with his already damaged hand.  He cursed in pain as his brother’s grace which had once sung with joy when Lucifer touched it now bit into him, burning his vessel and true self. The shock of the move gave Lucifer an opening though and he greedily took it, sidestepping and returning back out onto the street, automatically reaching up to catch a small glint of silver that arched through the air towards him.  He almost dropped it when he realized he had used his burned hand, but somehow managed to hold on.

**_“Thank you.  You may stay and help the others or go, both Paimon and Cas have been informed that you played a role, Cas will be informed more in depth of the role in a letter afterwards, so I suggest you step cautiously until the confusion’s cleared up.”_ **

The glass of the clock was broken and Lucifer embedded it deeply into his hand so he could hold on.  Dimly he realized how bad it was that he had to check to make sure it was there, not able to feel anything from the amount of nerve damage.  Turning back around and quickly moving across the remains of the building, he stopped his vessel from breathing so he wouldn’t choke on the dust.  Michael was blazing in anger and furiously digging his way out of the wreckage, though Lucifer didn’t think he had seen the clock.  Anyways, even if he had, he wouldn’t know what it was.  Lucifer had needed to search long and hard to get the idea on how to open the garden, it was highly unlikely Michael would figure it out until they were trapped there. 

And there was the brilliant and terrifying part of the plan, the explanation that stole all thought.  The items Meg had retrieved for Lucifer were ones that once together, destabilized reality, sending a jagged cut into the fabric into the molecule thin walls between levels of existence.  On their own they were completely useless, the crack was momentary and definitely not big enough for anything to get through.  It was the clock that made the whole thing work.  An item usually used to stop time but now used for the purposes of going beyond it, slitting through the already tiny walls and reopening up a bubble that would quickly close behind it.  A bubble that Father himself had created to house the garden, one not existing within time and expanding hundreds of lifetimes between seconds, seconds in lifetimes. One clock and one chance to get there, but no way to get out.  Once it was sealed, it would be sealed forever.  Nothing short of Father Himself could reopen the bubble once it was closed.  Lucifer didn’t kid himself that he’d be able to just through Michael in, he’d have to drag the other archangel there himself, kicking and screaming. 

 

~*~

 

Sam couldn’t stop himself from calling out his brother’s name even though the words were lost completely in the din around them.  Dean was moving back into the building that had just collapsed on him and Michael, taking little head of the danger around them.  Sam felt a hand grab his wrist and he snarled at its owner, turning to see Gabriel pulling him back, a pained look on the archangel’s face.  Knowing there was no way of getting out of Gabriel’s grip short of stabbing him with an angel blade,—and that would make all the soul siphoning that had recently occurred useless—Sam resigned himself to watching from the sidelines, just standing around now that most of the fighting angels and demons had moved away so as not to get in the way of the fighting archangels.  Not that he could do much help anyways, archangel battles were terrifying, Sam could really see now why one between Lucifer and Michael would bring about the apocalypse.

They had been fighting for less than ten minutes and already destroyed three city streets.  Michael, who was fighting to kill, was doing better off than Sam’s brother.  Dean’s right arm down to his hand was completely mangled, covered in a mix of light and blood but clenched in a tight fist around the item someone had thrown him.  The rest of his body was covered in scrapes and blood but it was the grace that worried Sam most.  Dean’s wings were fully on display and while normally Sam would find it fascinating to watch the almost languid movements of ice and shadow, now he just felt cold with horror.  The three that were broken off hadn’t fully healed and were bleeding grace, evidently slowing his brother down quite a bit

Michael managed to get out of the rubble as Sam’s mind was assessing Dean and the archangel threw himself at Dean once again, their blades sending out loud rings as they clashed.  Sam couldn’t make out Dean’s face to see if he was as confident as Michael, but he really hoped that his brother had a plan for this, that the object he was thrown would somehow help him defeat Michael.  Sam swore slightly under his breath, knowing he should have done more research into a way to stop the apocalypses.  He had spent days pouring over ideas in-between times when him and Gabriel would go out for grabbing weapons and holy oil that was being used all around them, but it still hadn’t been enough to help Dean any.

Sam hadn’t prayed since finding out what angels were like, but now he was considering trying it again, hoping desperately for anything to save his brother.

 

~*~

 

**“A letter? Where will you be? What does the clock d-”**

Lucifer cut Meg off before she finished her question, leaving the demons mind and focusing solely on the task at hand, namely, staying alive long enough to recite the words that he had memorized only days previously.  Luckily it wasn’t very long, hardly four lines.

_“Nunc omnes tradendos historia, quaestiones eam non invenire,”_ Lucifer’s voice was quiet, barely an undertone and bringing no sound from the slowly spinning clock.

Michael attacked again and Lucifer knew he wasn’t drawing this out any longer, fully ready now to kill his brother.

_“Respondet mysteriis quod dedecus hoc concussi animi.”_  Volume rising steadily as finally the clock stirred, showing its existence with a slight whine from his right hand

Slashing out at Michael, Lucifer missed and was forced to dodge with a roll.  A strike upwards turned into a parry and then a hit!  A long bleeding gash sent across Michael’s face.

_“_ _Educam eas ad vos risus sed foeda creata sum dolos,”_ A steady peal now rising from the clock, high pitched and tolling out like delicate thunder as it came up to a crescendo.

Then pain as a blade pierced Lucifer’s side, followed by a brief moment of triumph as his own blade took off the top of Michael’s right wings.  A small scale blast that leveled any bit of the casino still standing.  Movement and a new street with a line of restaurants and strip clubs intertwined—only in Las Vegas.  No time to mourn the dead humans, too full of morning for time Lucifer could have had, time lost to the whirling clock in his hand.  The last line sprung to Lucifer’s lips and he maneuvered Michael around so Lucifer could seek out through the spectators, darting eyes wanting to see his mate one more time.

_“Reliquit post te in sempiternum, omnia secum somnia!”_ A heartbroken whisper lost amidst the scream of the clock turning, bringing with it the start of another penance for destructive pride so long ago.

Lucifer now frantically sought out Cas, abandoning his angel blade to the ground and locking his arms around Michael, slapping his destroyed hand around the back of Michael’s neck and pinning his sword between them.  Lucifer passed Sam’s alarmed frame by briefly, forcing himself to look away when he finally located his other kin.  He caught Cas’ gaze just as the clock reached fortissimo and the air around them started to darken, wisps of void turning and spinning around the time device and its holder.  Lucifer knew his voice wouldn’t be heard over the scream of the clock opening up the garden, but he still spent his last few seconds shouting out an ever unheard apology to his mate. 

The last thing Lucifer saw before darkness took him completely was Cas’ fearful face, one of his arms outstretched in a futile gesture as he took a step towards the archangel he’d never reach in time, the shape of Lucifer’s name on his lips and a wide blue gaze that swallowed the sky. 


	22. Letters of a Moment Passed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the decision Lucifer made in Las Vegas, and the letters he gave Castiel.

The non-existent moment that it took for the shining creatures to disappear lasted years.  Years in which nothing moved, nothing breathed, and no time passed.  Those years had no effect on the winged creatures, the creatures with eyes of varying tones of hell or the creatures not defined by any supernatural characteristics.  They passed it by without a thought, a photo captured and then lost.  The scene was still, dust caught in the middle of falling, bricks tumbling over each other to freeze in open space.  An eagle eye view would provide with broken streets, crushed rubble and fighting creatures, each looking the same from the air, if one was to ignore the wings and eyes.  

Most of them were still locked in battle, swords, knifes and other miscellaneous weapons held frozen in the middle of a strike, jab or maybe block.  Mostly it was just the colored eyes fighting against the winged creatures, but a select few were fighting their siblings, each side just following orders.  One particular winged creature —with blue eyes and a tan trench coat—was not fighting at all.   It was standing close to the shining ones, but miles away, an arm stretched out as if it could change a moment that had already happened but hadn’t passed yet.  Its wings, a mix of shadows and ice also reached forward, spread and attempting to stretch even further.  It was a very peculiar winged creature and though it had spent most of the past time fighting, since a clock had been transported from one side of the world to another it had stopped, following the shining ones while ignoring almost everything else.  Blood and grace bled from it at multiples places, one where it had been stabbed, another where marks like claws had opened up its back.  The wounds were not deep however, and easy to forget when such greater concerns were to be had.  This creature fought the moment it was stuck in and yet desperately wanted it to last, for the shining one that belonged to it to stay as long as possible, their eyes meeting and no words passing between them.

A little ways down from the winged creature, a tall creature with no significant otherworldliness was frozen, its eyes widening in realization of something to come, something horrible and wonderful.  It had busied itself through the fight by making rings of holy fire—after being used to heal another winged creature it was far too tired to do much else.  It always kept the shining ones in view however, remembering how one of them used to be so tightly related to it, a bond that hadn’t been completely lost since learning of the new side of its kin.  Worry and desperation poured off of it, one hand curled around an angel blade tucked into its jacket, prepared to fight yet knowing that there was only so much it could do.  This creature did not understand the moment it was in and would remain in blissful ignorance until the moment finally passed.

A different winged creature, another shining one, had been—moments before—standing next to the tall one.  This one with tawny hair and a face made for now absent laughter was not fully healed despite the use of a soul.  It had spent too little time siphoning off the tall one’s energy, not wanting to harm it and so neglecting to fully repair its torn vessel.  All of the power for healing had been redirected to wings and the worst of the wounds.  In this moment the creature was stopped while slashing outwards, not looking at the shining ones but pushing back a brother it had never known.  Its face conveyed regret and worry but it was in a soldier’s persona, fighting to cause little damage and to extend the fighting but not end it.   It did not want to kill its siblings.  This creature knew that the moment did not belong to it, the moment was just another loss in a series of them, leaving the creature alone where there had once been four. 

The colored eyed creatures were not as reserved as the winged ones.  Most of them enjoyed the fighting, dragging it out because they had been told to rather than any real desire to not kill anyone.  They were ducking, twisting and snarling, caught without any illusions that they weren’t anything other than supernatural in origin.   Some of them were creating a large circle around the shining ones, some of them were fighting with the winged creatures, and some of them went around looking for ordinary creatures, pulling them out of harm’s way, at all odds with their nature.  For them, this moment was great loss and even greater gain.  The shining one they fought with would be gone, but the white-eye who owned them could take its place.  Said white-eye was not fighting, more like the one with ice and shadow wings, it was watching the shining ones.  It stooped, curled inwards as if trying to protect itself from any more blades than the one that had already caught it.  A great gash ran across its chest, but it was the shining ones that pulled to the surface all the pain it was feeling.  It had fought with one of the disappearing shining ones alongside the soon to be last shining one, but unlike a winged one, could not heal through the use of a human soul without causing irreparable damage.  Resignation clouded its face, caught in a spark of unhappy realization that would not leave, even when time started to pass.    For this creature, the moment was about being left behind, following its shining one for so long only to find out there were places they could not both go.

Behind all of the aforementioned creatures but in front of the fighting, a black-eye crouched in a small protected space between some flipped tables, peeking out to see the results of its actions.  This black-eye did not crouch in pain, but rather in protectiveness, its safety always at the forefront of its mind.  It did not rest now, though it had had none in all the movement of the past days, running around and attempting to fulfill the orders of the shining one who commanded it.  Having played its part by releasing a small timepiece to its shining one, the black-eye watched and waited.  It was colored with confusion it tried not to show, its head slightly tilted and eyes narrowed.  This moment for the creature was completely unanticipated and unexpected, a very plausible happenstance that it had never seen coming. 

Scattered across the battlefield that was one of the ordinary creatures cities, a handful of the creatures themselves were unmoving as they darted about, constantly being underestimated and so perfect for slipping in with a blade or ring of fire.  These creatures did not know that they were stopped, they had heard the rising noise and taken cover, but allowed only the smallest suspicions to cloud their minds.  A gruff old creature with a hat was in the midst of mumbled words about being too old for this, a flame just sparking in its hand, prepared to fall and then spread across the line of holy oil that surrounded a winged creature fighting with one of its siblings.  On the opposite side of the fight two women were inert in their dance with a winged creature, fighting side by side—for the first and perhaps last time—with a colored eye.  The brunette one was shielding the blond one as the winged creature, frozen in a snarl reached out with its hand, in the process of throwing its aggressors backwards.  True, they had noticed the noise, but this moment wouldn’t mean anything to them until it was over and had passed them by, fading away as time raced forwards.

And then they moment was gone, taking with it the shining ones and the noise, leaving nothing constructive behind, disappearing without a trace or even a fight to remain.  Those who had not noticed the moment instantly understood that something had transpired, though none could quite figure out yet what it was.  Everywhere they stopped, not an artificial stilling that they had before, but one born of uncertainty.  This abrupt silence that descended when the moment finished didn’t last long however.  The first sounds that came back were completely natural and easily bypassed, the soft brush of wind sending small rocks tumbling against each other.  A bird trilled in concern, the notes repeated once and then gone as the bird finally managed to make it out of the fallen in room it had been stuck in throughout the moment of tranquility.  Finally there was a clang of falling metal, its resounding echo spurring the many watchers into creating their own sound, the flap of leaving wings gradually getting louder as more of the creatures with wings left, able to feel their shining ones absence.  They had been so sure of their rightness and their mission that none knew what to do when it failed, most choosing to reconvene in heaven before figuring out who now they should answer to. 

The colored eyed ones didn’t take such a reasonable escape to their confusion, mulling about until the white-eye snapped into motion from its previous crouch of pain.   The white-eye’s voice was short and clipped, but it did its job and the creatures also burst into motion, disappearing and pulling others with them, descending back to where they belonged, ready to protect and defend their new station that would come with the loss of their shining one.  The creatures with wings that had stayed tried to approach the one with shadow and ice wings, but the tawny haired shining one who was left started to issue words instead.  The others listened to him and started to move, searching out anyone wounded and instigating their rank over the rival winged creature who had decided to stay.  All surrendered, fires were doused and the authority of those belonging to the creature with ice and shadow wings and of the last shining one was recognized.  They were not calloused creatures to ignore their losses, but they were organized, their motions deeply engrained into them since their beginnings.

The winged creature with ice and shadow wings wavered, almost falling to the ground before catching itself and stumbling towards the place where the shining ones disappeared.  Upon reaching it, the creature finally let itself fall to the ground, its knees hitting the rock hard, but barely noticing as it reached out again, this time connecting with what it wanted to grasp.  It wrapped its fingers around the hilt of an obsidian blade, pulling it close and into its lap, its knuckles turning white from the strength of its grip.  A high keening wail escaped its throat and the white-eye flinched, curling in on itself before taking a deep breath and continuing with its commands.  The last shining one went over to the one with shadow and ice wings but any attempts at comfort were rebuked with an inhuman snarl, forcing it to retreat.  For the moment the creature was left alone. 

The tall ordinary one was shouting denials, furious at the world around and fighting against the moment that was now passed, wanting desperately to go back and have the years that never happened.

The world around them took its time in waking up, spilling out random amounts of the ordinary creatures, each one attempting to run.  Scared of the noise and the fighting, and not understanding what was happening, most of them choose the flight option.  There weren’t very many of those who decided on the less survival oriented fight option, but the ones who did appear were those who had decided to find the cause for such destruction, a foolish and ineffectual task they weren’t given the chance to complete before they were warded off, their eyes glazed and memories hastily wiped.  Their appearances spurred most of the winged creatures on however, and soon they were all moving on, changing the place of the talks that would need to take place to somewhere else away from creatures not of their own species.  Only a scattered few were left, still walking around to remove the dead vessels and items of possible suspicion.  The winged creature with ice and shadow wings had stopped its sound long ago and was now curved in on itself, resting its forehead against the blade in its hands.  They had been victorious, but there was still so much left to do and clean up.  All of the winged ones had been fighting siblings, their cause and loss of life attributed to the saving of the ordinary creature’s home.  The colored-eyes who helped in this process were just as quiet, all belonging to the white-eye and so all feeling its agony at the disappearance and loss of their shining one.  Very soon news of this event would spread through their home and they’d be forced to fight more, validate their owner’s newly risen position.  The owner in question was making no move itself to return to their home, sending repeated glances at both the winged creature with wings of shadow and ice.

Since all the winged ones save that one were accounted for, the last shining creature now approached the tall creature, reaching out and placing a hesitant hand on its shoulder.  A quick exchange of questions and incongruous answers ended in the tall one breaking down and throwing itself around the shorter one, wails of grief causing racking movement in both their frames.  The older ordinary creature walked up, followed by more of its kind and stricken dumb as it tried desperately to not also break. The few remaining winged creatures converged around these creatures reaching out to tap their heads and transport them away, the colored-eyes preferring to step back and leave on their own. The silence and calm that descended now did so gradually, not quite achieving the absolution of before, but filled with all the sorrow that came with the aftershocks of loss.  It grew in random proportion as the others left until there were only six left, each one in vary degrees of grief or shock.  The creature winged with shadows and ice, the white-eyed creature, the last shining one, the tall creature, the older one of the same species and the black-eye who looked quite unsure as to where it should be at the moment.

It was only when one of the ordinary creature’s machines appeared in the sky that they started to move again.  The shining one disappeared with the two ordinary ones before either could protest.  Ignoring its injuries, the white-eye finally moved over to the winged creature and kneeled down beside it, sharing mumbled words but receiving no answer beyond a shake of the head.  When loud reverberating declarations were spat out from the machines in the sky the black-eye finally moved, pulling a ring off its finger and gingerly walking around to crouch in front of the two kneeling creatures.  It said a sentence, tapering off the end into a reluctant question that encouraged hope.  This finally sparked movement in the winged creature, who seemed to shake itself and then reached into its pocket to pull out a thick and crumpled envelope.  Instantly forgotten and giving into its survival instincts, the black-eye stood up and created a vertical and oval halo in the air with its ring, stepping through it with one last glance to the creatures on the ground. 

With shaking hands the winged creature opened the large envelope, pulling out five smaller envelopes, each with something written on the front.  Sifting through them and picking up the envelope with the word—perhaps a name—‘Castiel’ on it, the winged creature dumped the rest ungracefully into the white-eyes lap, sitting back to stare at the smaller but heavy envelope in its hands.  It moved again, settling down cross-legged so it could still hold the obsidian blade while looking at the letter.  Very carefully it broke the seal, a silver ring falling out alongside the paper, caught in the winged creatures hand before it hit the ground. 

 


	23. Letters of a Moment Passed: Castiel

_Castiel_

_So first off, before I really get into depth about anything, can you make sure Sam, Paimon, Gabriel and Bobby all get the letters that were in here with yours? I originally thought I'd give them out separately, but then realized that things would probably happen too quickly to allow me to do so.  Please just try and get them out if you can._

_Now, starting my letter to you.  If you're reading this, then I might as well be dead or am actually dead.  And if you were anyone else you'd laugh at that, but I know you're completely lost when it comes to pop culture and probably didn’t get it, but that’s okay ‘because I love that about you.  Kay, and here I'll explain a few things.  After the whole mess with Raphael I decided I needed a backup plan, something that could be done if nothing else worked or was found as a solution.  I knew Sam and the others were all researching ways to lock Michael up that wouldn't require a sacrifice of any kind, but really, it's our lives.  Sacrifice is practically our middle names.  After quite a bit of searching I came across a short paragraph about the garden of Eden, which reminded me of the last time I had been there, whispering into people's ears as a snake. When we were all thrown out of it I could remember Father shutting it off, pulling it out of reality and closing it with the whole flaming sword thing.  I mostly dismissed the information, but then later I came across a description of a clock that manipulated time.  Make a crack in time and combine the two, and I knew I'd be able to get into the garden.  I researched some more, actually found some info on it that I stole from heaven a really long time ago—don't ask, seriously—and figured out that while I could get Michael  in, he wouldn’t be able to get out.  I realized I would need to be the one to drag Michael in though, and while that really sucks, I know I need to do it._

_It's the perfect and worst plan Cas! I'm leaving you, but I'm going to bring Michael with me, so you'll be safe. With Raphael already gone there’ll be no more threats to you or your garrison, what with Gabriel and you being the most powerful angels now, you could probably even go back to heaven.  Paimon’s going to take over in hell after I’m gone, so you’ll always be welcome there too.  You’ve got Sam and Bobby on earth, without Michael you’ll be able to do anything you want.   I’m sorry about leaving you and the rest of our little, ‘Team Free Will’, but not about leaving in general.  Having you and the earth alive means far more to me than my life._

_I’ve left my ring in this envelope, I just wanted you to have it.  If we had had more time I always thought we could get married the human way too, just a little thing that Sam could get all emotional and girly about. Granted I’m supposed to be dead and I’m sure the same has probably been said for Jimmy, but we still could’ve gotten married.   It wouldn’t have been much, but I think it would’ve been nice.  I don’t know if you can forgive me for leaving you, but I still wanted you to have my ring, you have all of me already, but there is so little I can actually leave for you.  I’m sorry for not making much sense, I’ve rewritten this letter four times already and now I just need to get this done or I’m going to give up and tell you everything before it even happens._

_And now for the sentimental parts that I’m absolutely terrible at writing, but I’ll try—sorry ‘bout the confusing parts with interchangeably using Dean and Lucifer._

_I love you so much Cas.  When I first saw you as Dean and you told me you were an angel I was so freaking elated and terrified.  I don’t think I ever actually thanked you for pulling me out of hell, but believe me, I was completely and totally grateful, still am by the way.  You said you weren’t there to perch on my shoulder but even so, all I could think was that you were annoying, petrifying and unbelievably hot with all your cryptic little comments and speeches.  When you came to me on the bench and told me you weren’t a hammer was the time I first thought, ‘yup, this is my angel’.  Right after I rose as Lucifer and was still in the process of piecing myself back together I talked to Dean a bit—I know that makes me crazy, what with talking to another part of myself like I was, but why not?  Stranger things have happened.  Anyways, back from that tangent, I remember right after rising I felt your grace snuff out.  I remember I was so upset by it, but couldn’t figure out why ‘because I didn’t really know you.  When I reconnected with Dean and saw all his memories of you was when I realized that we both loved you.  You saved us from Zachariah twice, you rebelled from heaven, and you’ve always been there when I needed you.  This is getting into really sappy territory but it needs to be said.  Thank you so much Cas, for all that you’ve done for me, for listening to me, for helping me, just for always being there throughout everything.  I love you now and I always will._

_-Lucifer_

_I’m just scribbling this down because we’re going to leave to _help Gabriel with Michael in a moment_ and I’m pretty sure we’re not both coming back, but I have one last thing to say.  I wasn’t going to claim you ‘because I knew I would be leaving, but I’m not sorry I did.  My time with you has been the best in my life and I’m so glad I’ll have a part of you to take with me into the garden.  We have each other’s wings Cas, and if that doesn’t belong on some chick flick rom-com I don’t know what does.  I’m pretty sure our bond will still be there after I’m in the garden but I don’t know if we’ll still be able to talk through it or garrison radio.  At least I’ll still be able to feel you and I’m so grateful for that.  Goodbye love._

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	24. Letters of a Moment Passed: Paimon

_Paimon_

_I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be dead when you’re reading this, but for peace of minds sake I’m going to say I am dead.  Me and Michael both._

_On that delightful note, let’s begin this by being overly nostalgic and I’ll remind you of a conversation we had a really long time ago, no matter whose clock we’re reading.  It was actually the last time I saw you before I was thrown into my cage.  I told you then that you couldn’t help me fight Michael, and the idea remains the same if not the sentiment.  I know you’re probably pissed at me right now, and I know you hate being left behind, but I couldn’t tell you or you’d try and stop me.  I got us into this mess and it’s my job to get us out.  If you got in Michael’s way he’d kill you without a thought and I’m extremely adverse to that idea.  I must say I’m quite fond of you alive._

_Another thing I know is that you’d probably rather this whole thing end like it was supposed to.  You’d be perfectly content with hell rising, Michael dying and the earth being destroyed if you got to keep me, Castiel and Gabriel around with you.  And honestly?  I can’t say I’d be too adverse to the idea—with a slightly larger group still alive—but that’s not the only thing I believe in anymore and you can’t say you’d miss earth.  So no, this didn’t end the way we thought it would, but it’s better for you and the others.  In a while you’ll agree, just because you love me and have a screwed up emotional capacity._

_Hell is yours now.  I know demons are assholes and there will likely be revolts and all that fun stuff, but you’ve got so many allies in higher levels that even if all else fails I’m positive you’ll be able to hold it. Besides, I willingly gave it up to you, so it should follow some of your commands now.  Believe me, it takes a long time how to figure out completely how to do that, but I have faith that you’ll get it.  I’m not going to tell you how to run it, but there are a few items I left on my bed back on my property that’ll help you with all that. Just contract papers, lists of allies and all the writing shit that I hate doing but got around to it anyways.   I’m leaving Cas that whole area, though I forgot to tell him and I really don’t want to rewrite that letter again, so I’d be happy if you let him know.  Don’t laugh at me about rewriting it by the way, you and Sam still represent the female side of the species in Team Free Will.  I was going to tell you we could all braid each other’s hair later, but then I remembered that is going to be no later once you read this._

_So before I go and self-importantly think in a very maudlin way that isn’t pouting at all, I’ll finish this off.  I do remember that time we tried to figure out how much alcohol it took to get use drunk, I don’t remember anything I said that day, and I’m never getting drunk with you again if it means I’ll spill my guts.  Literally and as a metonymy.  Thanks for going to hell with me and agreeing to help me after I got out of the cage.  Even though I was a bloodthirsty and messed up archangel you never cared, and even when I stayed an archangel but got part of a human mind you still just smiled and went with it.  I’ve really appreciated your loyalty and friendship, and I’ll miss you man._

_-Lucifer_

_I’ve asked Meg to go around and help me collect stuff for my grand exit, and she’s been a ton of help.  If you’re still alive then she retrieved everything in a nice timely fashion, and quite well.  Basically what I’m getting at, is please just nicely compensate her for her troubles.  She’s extremely self-protecting and so if you use the right leverage she’ll be useful to keep around. Yada, yada, I’m sure you get it._

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	25. Letters of a Moment Passed: Sam

_Sam_

_Hey bro, I am so fucking sorry for this.  We both knew something like this was going to happen.  I’ll completely agree that it really sucks but hey, when has anything else happened differently?  Something goes wrong and we have to fix it.  Admittedly this is my fault this time, so I think it’s rather responsible of me for cleaning it all up.  Even so, I know I haven’t been spending as much time with you as I usually would and I wish I had had more time to change that.   I’m really sorry about that.  I really love you Sam, you’re an amazing brother and I’m seriously going to miss you._

_That chick-flick moment aside, I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly happened to me, so here it is.   I’m stuck in the Garden of Eden with Michael, no way to get in or out.  I had to drag Michael into a new permanent enclosure because I couldn’t kill him and my cage is already in use, so that became it.  Now while I’m sure the others who know can explain the exact mechanics to you, I need to say it in a different way.  Do you remember that documentary we watched on the guy with the first name that stated with S and the second name that was Rudolph?  It was just after a hunt with a vamp nest that went really well, and so to celebrate we went out and got drunk?  We got back to the motel rather early cause you were being a girl, but there wasn’t anything on TV except that documentary and when you saw it you got all excited because one of your of friends had been obsessed with that sort of stuff.  Later you looked like a kicked puppy because I thought he actually used a cat in his experiment thing.  I thought the whole film was freaking hilarious because the dude had a name like Rudolph, still don’t get who names their kid after a reindeer with a red nose.  But back to the wonderful and brilliant analogy for what happened to me.  It was about a cat in a box and some type of science.  The guy put the cat and some poison in the box, and then set the poison to release randomly, maybe it would, maybe it wouldn’t.  If the poison released the cat would die, but no one outside of the box would be able to tell if it was alive until they opened the box to find out.  For the whole time that the box remained closed the cat was both alive and dead._

_Now time for the dazzling metaphor; the garden is the box and I am the cat, for lack of better information Michael is the poison.  I am both alive and dead, but the outside observer is never going to know.  Either way, I am gone and completely unreachable.  That’s what I want to press onto you.  Do not look for ways to get me back.  Paimon’s taking over hell, so no demon’s going to make a deal with you, and besides, none of them can open the Garden.  Father—my Father—created it and closed it off, no one short of Him will open it up again.  So just go out and live.  I know you still miss Stanford and a normal life, so go back and get that.  If you want normal, then get the hell out of the hunt and be normal.  We stopped the fucking apocalypse!  You deserve a break.  Get yourself a girl or a Gabriel and go settle down—you’re lucky I’m not with you because that is some ideal teasing material right there, don’t think I’m blind.   Bypassing your awkward little pigtail pulling dance with my other little brother, just be happy.  I’m not going to tell you to forget about me, but don’t pull another Ruby.  Have some fun and follow the advice of thousands of pithy and obvious motivational quotes telling you to live your life._

_I’m leaving you the Impala again.  This time, do not douche it up.  I mean it, no iPod’s or other frilly shit.  I will allow you to get a dog, but that’s it.  She’s the most important girl in my life and you are not allowed to ruin her just because she can’t complain.  One last request with baby, make sure she sees the Grand Canyon at least once.  Drink a beer there for me too, maybe even call Cas down, then again if you called Paimon you guys could probably braid each other’s hair.  I didn’t really get the feeling that the two of you were great friends, but seriously, you could bond over painting your nails and all the emotional and girly shit I won’t talk to you about.  But seriously and like a special effects voice in the sky, go to the Grand Canyon._

_Because I can’t_ not _—I mean, it’s Kansas_ — _I’ll end this with one last bit of advice.  Carry on my wayward son._

_-Lucifer_


	26. Letters of a Moment Passed: Gabriel

_Gabriel_

_And now you’re the last archangel on earth.  Isn’t that fun.  About that and before I get into anything else, I wanted to apologize for everything I’ve done to adversely influence you.  It’s my fault Michael and I always fought, it’s my fault our family was split up and that you_ are _the last archangel now.  I can’t say I’d change it if I could, but I do wish you hadn’t been as affected as you were.  So please forgive me for that, and thank you for working with us on this and trusting me to have figured some things out._

_I’m pretty sure either you or Cas are going to take over heaven now, which I think is hilarious ‘because you’ve spent the last however long on earth and Cas started out as a battlefield angel.  Still if you’re the one who gets it, enjoy yourself and good luck.  Kick some asses for us all._

_Lastly, please don’t disappear into a Trickster again, Sam, Paimon and Cas will probably be a better family to you than Michael and I ever were. They’re all extremely fond of you, not sure how they’ll react to your pagan friends though if you haven’t already introduced them all.   Love you little brother._

_-Lucifer_

_  
_


	27. Letters of a Moment Passed: Bobby

_Bobby_

_Hey Bobby.  I’m sure if we could talk right now you’d be calling me an idjit, but neither of us really like to get into those long winded heartfelt tirades, so we’ll skip most of the fluffy reminiscing.  One thing that has to be said though.  I’m really glad that you were my father figure when I was Dean, and I can tell you that didn’t change when I became Lucifer again.  It was seriously great knowing you and passing the greater portion of my problems my problems over your couch.  Cheers old man,_

_-Lucifer_


	28. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So after millennia stuck in a cage and then barely a human lifetime on earth, Lucifer is once again trapped in a cage. Granted, this time it smells like cedar, is really big, and has trees, but it's still solitary confinement. Oh yes, just freaking wonderful.

_Swish, swish, swish, swish_

The noises always repeated as somewhere in the garden, those protective fire swords waved, never changing their tempo or pitch.  If Lucifer had been fully cogent in the first place, the noise they made probably would've driven him mad.  Then again, there were a lot of things in the garden that would've driven him mad.  The pain from wounds, the phantom crushing of a hand that was no longer there, the swishing of flaming swords, the death of his older brother at his own hands, take a pick.  Still, as he wasn't exactly paying attention to any of those irritants, he couldn't be bothered to care.  No, Lucifer wasn’t paying any attention to those mindless things, he was just curled up in the fetal position and staring endlessly into space, trying to think of anything but the gaping hole in his head.  He'd been proper mates with Cas for less than an earth day before entering the garden and having the bond disappear, but it felt like a crucial part of him was missing.  He knew that Cas was alive, but he had no idea how he was, what he was feeling, if he was injured, even how long had passed since he had last seen him.  Seconds, days, months, years…

Pulling his wings tighter around himself, Lucifer made a move as if to grab one to calm himself, but then froze as the stump that used to be his hand only uselessly tapped against the shadow and ice feathers.  Well, at least that was something else he could think about, Lucifer reflected, pulling his arm back to stare at the scorched and burnt skin.  It had been wrecked enough by Michael’s grace, holding the clock while it was opening up the garden had just been the last straw in the loss of limb.  His hand was missing and now just a branded stump healed up to right below where his wrist had been.  What sucked even more was that the grace that had filled that part of his vessel was gone too, leaving another yawning hole in his grace that would never heal.   Michael had gotten off worse, Lucifer reflected, his eyes unwillingly sliding to the side where he could see the non-complete imprint of wings burnt into the ground, the vessel never decaying, just lying there with sightless eyes.  The clock had been pressed up against the back of Michael’s neck and had killed the older archangel during the cross over to the garden.  The arches of Michael’s wings that Lucifer had been pressed up against had burned themselves into Lucifer's forearms, an eternal reminder that he had killed his only older brother.  Done everything to not have to but, with a lovely piece of situational irony, had killed him anyways. 

Lucifer didn't know what had happened to the energy that Michael’s death had released, which was funny since it had been such a huge part of getting rid of him safely.  Since Cas was still alive, it could be deduced that the energy hadn't destroyed earth, but there was also no damage to the garden.  It didn’t matter really, but it _was_ another thing to distract himself with.  Lucifer was going to be here for the rest of his life, and unless he mustered up the energy to try and find Michael’s blade, that was going to be forever.  Exact same as his cage, just nicer scenery. 

Speaking of scenery, Lucifer decided maybe something had changed since the last time he had looked around, stiffly pushing his legs down and out before him, leaning back and feeling a brief moment of gratitude when he felt a tree still at his back.  Not that it really could’ve moved since he’d scrambled over to it, but, nice to know he wasn’t insane.  Lucifer remembered that the garden was full of life, but everything had avoided him since his arrival, knowing he shouldn’t be there and so giving him space he didn’t want.  Anyways, back to what the place looked like, there were tons of different plants for the different ecosystems spread out throughout the garden and Lucifer and Michael had just happened to land in an extinct one.  Or at least, Lucifer had never seen the plants around him when he was wandering about earth.  It was a forest-like place with deciduous trees that had thick and tough bark, a dark almost grey-blue color.  The leaves were huge and flat, each one easily the size of Lucifer’s torso.  Because of the lack of sunlight—or whatever the garden had that resembled sunlight—the floor was mostly barren of green plants, instead covered in lichens, mosses and mushrooms.  It really _smelled_ like something that was extinct, a musky scent with a hint of cedar.   Lucifer hadn’t exactly been in the best mind state when he had arrived, but from the numerous trails and the smell, bugs had lived here before he invaded their home.  Now it was just him and his dead brother.  Huh, maybe the garden around them would even die with the lack of mobile animals.  It’d be fitting, just another thing Lucifer wrecked. 

Drawn down that self-loathing path again, Lucifer allowed his eyes to close, folding his arms over his chest and breathing deeply to hold it for a few seconds before letting out the air.  He didn’t need to breath, yet it was nice, almost calming after all the time spent as a human.  This thought caused one corner of his mouth to quirk up in depressive mirth.  The equivalent of hundreds of years in heaven, millions of years stuck in his cage, thirty years as a human and now he was back in a cage.  Shit luck.  Seriously shit luck.

The reflection on luck reminded him of Cas and he grinned again at the thought of his mate, remembering one time when they had been up against a witch who cursed him for making a drinking comment about St Patrick’s day.  He still fucking hated witches, but that time had memorable, a non-busy moment in the middle of the apocalypse when he had still been Dean and trying to stop himself from rising.  The curse had made it so that everything he said had been something about luck, gold, rainbows or leprechauns.  It all had the meaning of what he meant to say, just put in an Irish way—oh look, it rhymes!  So when Cas had showed up Lucifer had shouted out some Irish thing about blessings outweighing shamrocks and trouble avoiding Cas, a fluffy little thing that Lucifer wouldn’t have ever said in a million years.  He had debated committing suicide by smothering in pillows at Sam’s laughter, but Cas had just looked very focused and thanked him in that serious tone he had.  There had been an undercurrent of happiness in it that wouldn’t let Lucifer take the words back.  Cas was so completely awesome, this adorable little angel who made Lucifer want to turn in his man card and then just gather his mate up and cuddle.  Except, now he couldn’t.  He wouldn’t ever get the chance to see, laugh with, be amused by, fuck, or cuddle Cas ever again.  Yup, quite depressing.

 

It went on like that for even more of the immeasurable time that seemed to stretch along in the garden, Lucifer’s thoughts drifting back and forth, swinging wildly and then dashing back to their original lines.  Everything from his family to TV shows and plants to bees plodded its way through his head, each tangent slipping into his mind briefly before slipping away again, discarded until another vague connection was made.  To make up for it, Lucifer slept a lot, whenever he was able to.  The oblivion was beautiful, a wonderful but dangerous release from the jumble his mind had once again become.  Without any plots of escaping his cage and _with_ a weapon, Lucifer’s mind turned to that oblivion far more than was healthy, conspiring elaborate plans that consisted of little things like him stealing Michael’s sword and then letting his wings join his brothers in the ground.  The only reason he didn’t was because his wings were a part of Cas.  The only other part of Cas that Lucifer still had save the knowledge that his mate was still alive, that awareness tucked snuggly in the back of his mind. 

It was during one of these cravings for oblivion that something actually changed in this static confinement.  Lucifer had opened his eyes to look for Michael’s sword and had been staring at the sheen of reflected light in longing for perhaps hours before he noticed that something was different.  There was a man standing on the opposite side to Lucifer of Michael’s vessel, his head bowed and gazing sadly at the empty vessel and burnt wings.  It should’ve been earthshaking, a tremendous and paramount occasion, but Lucifer honestly couldn’t summon up the energy to react.  If this nondescript man wanted to be there then he was obviously insane.  No one should want to be in the garden when it took such pains to avoid them, especially when they looked so sad about being there.  Lucifer closed his eyes again.

And then they flew open again a short time later when the implications of there being someone else in the garden set in.  Lucifer sat up, pulling his legs towards himself and planting his hands on either side to push himself up.  An involuntary yelp escaped him as he was rudely reminded that oh wait, he no longer had two hands and putting his weight on the stump hurt because of the branded wings.  Due to this lack of foresight, Lucifer remained on the ground as he looked up at the man who, funnily enough, was now looking at Lucifer with a mix of sadness and fondness in his eyes.

It took two tries for Lucifer to speak.  Apparently even archangels can’t talk clearly after extended periods of silence.  “How are you here?”

The man didn’t reply for a few seconds.   He glanced at Michael once more before walking around the wings and sitting down next to Lucifer, mimicking the devil’s earlier position and letting out a small sigh of relief at the rest.  “I suppose because there is no reason for me not to be here.”

Lucifer snorted “No reason? How about the fact that it’s like a pretty fucking penitentiary in here?”

“Well how much of here have you seen?” The man asked, still with that doleful tone.

With a bitter chuckle, Lucifer waved his stump at the trees around him.  “Just Pandora here, thought it was nice enough.”

“You’d rather be back on earth.”

Seriously, there was something about this guy that rubbed Lucifer wrong.  He felt incredibly guilty and he hadn’t even _done_ anything.  It wasn’t his fault that the garden was the only good place to trap Michael in. 

“Of course I’d rather be back there.” He spat, curling inwards and pulling his knees to his chest so that he could rest his chin on them and pointedly not look at any of the living—or once living—beings that he shared this little spot with. 

“Why? What’s there for you?” The man asked curiously

Lucifer just glared harder at the tree he had decided to focus on, not replying.  Who did this guy think he was, coming over and asking such personal questions?  A sad sigh and a rustling noise alerted Lucifer to the fact that this man could actually leave him, there wasn’t anything keeping _him_ there. With this uneasy revelation Lucifer’s whipped around, reaching out and just stopping short of grabbing the man to keep him there, blurting out the first answer to come to his head.  “Castiel.”

The man stopped moving, raising an eyebrow to prompt Lucifer for more.  Funnily enough, it was names that came to Lucifer’s mind first and foremost and now that he had started talking he couldn’t seem to stop.  “Sam.  Paimon, Gabriel, Bobby.  Jo and Ellen.  Hell, at this point I’d go back just for the smell to change.”

“Your family.” The man nodded as if he’d been expecting this answer, and finally a smile broke across his face.  Just a slight one, but it was still there.  “You didn’t get along too well with your last one”

And maybe it was just either ‘let’s make unwanted comments’ day or Lucifer was becoming bipolar, but that comment really hurt.  “Ya, and what’s it to you?”

For the first time the man looked at Lucifer full on, the weight of his eyes causing Lucifer’s breath to catch in recognition.  Oh.  Oh fuck.  And apparently this man—his _Father_ —did that annoying mind reading thing as much as Cas had back when Lucifer was Dean, because the smile widened at that thought.  “They’re my family too”

“So what, you’ve been hanging around in here all this time? ‘Cause Zachy was sure confident that you weren’t in heaven” Lucifer asked his Father acidly, thrown by this new development.

“I have been where I was needed and done what was necessary” Was the cryptic reply.  Really? That’s all He’s goi-oh wait.  There’s some clarification. “If I had meddled would you have had free will?”

“You could’ve at least done something!” Lucifer argued, knowing as he did so that his Dad could see through the mask and was guaranteed to know how scared Lucifer actually was by all this. 

“And a long time ago you could’ve chosen _not_ to do something.” Father reminded and Lucifer flinched, knowing exactly what He was talking about.  “You’ve told many people that you’ve changed.”

It was phrased like a statement but He seemed to be waiting for something, so Lucifer nodded shortly.  Of course he had changed.  You couldn’t just live a life as a human without adopting some morals and habits. Father’s smile had left, but it didn’t look like He was angry as He spread His arms to indicate the garden around them.  “This garden exists outside of time, it is both before you Fell and thousands of years after you arrived.  If you’ve really changed then here and now you have a chance to prove it by not Falling or bringing sin into the world.  I can take you back in time to fix your mistakes.”

The offer floored Lucifer and he squeezed his eyes shut, pushing his face down into his knees and wrapping his arms around his head.  Lucifer _had_ changed.  He really had.  Given that opportunity though, he supposed he really hadn’t.  When he answered his voice was barely a whisper.  “No.  I won’t.”

This refusal caused silence to again reign over Lucifer’s little piece of the garden as he waited for Father to speak, to reprimand Lucifer or leave.  Thinking about it, maybe Father already had left, He’d be able to go without making a noise.  Still, it was a little while longer before Lucifer could summon up the courage to look at Him.  To his surprise, there wasn’t any negative emotion on his Dad’s face, just thoughtfulness.

“Why not?” Father asked, completely non-judgmental, like His creation hadn’t just told Him that he wouldn’t prevent hardships, pain and suffering for billions upon billions of people.  There was no hesitation before Lucifer’s answer.

“Because then I wouldn’t have any of them.  Because then I wouldn’t have a brother who I love so much that I willingly sold my soul for him, I wouldn’t have shadows in my wings, I wouldn’t ever have had such unconditional loyalty from another sibling who I turned into a _demon_.  Because I’m too fucking selfish to give it up.”  Desperate to say his part now before Father left, Lucifer continued.  “’Cause it wasn’t completely terrible.  People got choice out of it too! They got to have each other and all the shit that comes with life.  Re-quoting what I told Cas when I was still human; I'll take the pain and guilt over this paradise any day.   And I was human when I said that.  Completely one hundred percent surface dweller.  I know I wasn’t the only one who thought that.”

Lucifer cringed at how bad it sounded, but stayed unrepentant as he waited for his Dad to say something.  The Other nodded slowly, turning away from Lucifer to tilt His head at Michael’s vessel.  His voice was soft when He spoke. “No, you weren’t the only one who thought that.”

After a few moments of no retribution Lucifer spoke again, unable to stand the silence. “So?  What is the point of all this?”

Father smiled again, looking almost happy but still so tired.  “I haven’t spoken with you or Michael in many years, do I need a reason?”

“Ya, well, you sure aren’t speaking to Michael again, and I know you’re not too fond of me.” Lucifer retorted bitterly, reaching down and fiddling with his shoelace, secretly reveling in the fact that it was covered in mud from _earth_.

And the smile was gone again.  Maybe it was just a thing about the garden, no one could hold an emotional state for longer than a couple minutes at most.  It couldn’t be that Lucifer was talking to his Father, whom he had last seen after disobeying Him and being thrown down to the pit.  Definitely not that.   “I love all my children Lucifer, all my creations and though some of your choices disappoint me, that will always include you.”

Well. That’s just great, another turnabout.  ‘Cause of course Father loves his disobedient, uncountable deaths causing and damaged son.  Who just killed Dad’s firstborn. 

Once again Lucifer’s voice was reduced to a whisper.  “That still doesn’t explain why You’re here.”

“I’m here because when you were in the cage you didn’t miss anything.  You pined for freedom, but there was nothing and no one out there that you missed solely for what or who they were.”  Father replied.  “This time you do.”

“Well so what, it’s not like I can go back to any of them.” Lucifer hissed childishly. 

This time when silence descended he didn’t try and break it, stubbornly continuing to pick at the shoelace.  All things considered, that was probably what Father had meant to happen, given that it was enough time for Lucifer to think things over. 

Lucifer hadn’t been lying in what he had written to Sam, Father could go in and out of the garden.  And maybe, just maybe, if Lucifer actually asked, threw away all his pride and took that chance, Lucifer might be able to see his human brother and his mate again.  Lucifer had clung to his pride regarding his Dad for so long that he wasn’t too sure he’d be able to let it go.  But still, if there was a possibility that Father might say yes, might take him back to earth, Lucifer couldn’t _not_ ask for it.  It’d be incredibly disappointing if Father said no, but He had said He loved Lucifer.  Part of loving someone was wanting them to be happy and Lucifer was absolutely _not_ happy here. 

“I wouldn’t change what I’ve done, but I miss all of them and I need to go back to my family.  You could let me out, take me back” Lucifer blurted out finally, squeezing his eyes shut.  “You can get in and out of here whenever you want and I know you can take me with you.  I’ll do anything to get back, just please, _please_ let me go home!”


	29. Is Where We Begin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The storyline might be done with the characters, but not all of them are done with it.

 

Using earth’s timing, it had been five months, one week and three days since Castiel had last seen his mate. 

Not that it mattered anymore, or that it really ever had.  But, useless as it was, Castiel still kept the count.   Without even thinking he followed it unfailingly, every morning another day would be added, and then at night it would be checked once again, the amount repeated for memory’s sake.  Throughout the day, not a word would be said related to his loss, it would be pushed to the back of his mind and ignored.  Castiel had gotten extremely good at the art of avoidance that Dean had always excelled in.  Perhaps for a human the whole numbness stage that set in after shock and grief would’ve been over by now, but for an angel who would live until forever unless he reached a violent end, it hadn’t eased one bit.  Castiel lived through the numbness—he couldn’t just stop, there were far too many angels depending on him—but he had only done so by throwing his mind to other things, his garrison, the demon garrisons he had been given, and at one point, human chemicals.  

Gabriel had reluctantly taken charge of heaven and told Castiel that as soon as the seraph was ready, he could have it because Gabriel really didn’t want that kind of responsibility.  At the time Castiel had only agree to make the archangel happy, but as more time passed he found that he was actually leaning towards the idea.  Being in charge of heaven would leave little time for the human emotions that Castiel shouldn’t even have to crash down on him.

For the first month after Lucifer had disappeared with his older brother, Castiel had spent his time grieving silently, hoping and praying that his mate would come back to him, would somehow find a way to do the impossible.  Once the realization that Lucifer was actually _gone,_ and gone for good set in, Castiel had thrown himself back into life with vigor, constantly working with his garrison, his friends, doing everything he could short to pass time short of taking over heaven.  Rachael, Sam and Balthazar had all been extremely concerned for him in the beginning though none of them truly knew what it was like to lose a bond mate, or even have one in the first place. 

Most of his garrison had left well enough alone, but Balthazar had tried to get him drunk and Rachel had made it her mission to look out for him, worrying until Castiel pulled up a mask of normality.  Sam—who had taken up hunting and calling Gabriel at random times for not actually needed backup—had made a point of calling Castiel to earth, usually just to hang out or do something ‘normal’.  As the seraph had only ever been Dean’s angel and hadn’t had much to do with the boy with demon blood, these outings were extremely awkward and had ended quickly.  Now whenever Sam saw Castiel he just started looking really sad.  Castiel knew why and it coincided with his previous point, he hadn’t actually read the hunters mind, but knew that Sam associated Castiel with his brother, even more so after learning that they had been essentially angel married.  This thought never hesitated to push Castiel back into a gloomy mood and he glanced down as his hand. Curling his thumb upwards, Castiel spun the silver ring his mate had given him around a couple times, the metal wrapped around the same finger Lucifer had worn it on. 

None of the others knew what Lucifer had written to him about the whole human marriage thing, but then again everyone who had gotten a letter from Lucifer had kept it private, though Paimon had ripped off the bottom of his because it explained about Meg.  The archdemon had probably been the most helpful to Castiel as he dealt with the crushing loneliness, both in giving him something to do and stopping him from getting too far into something he’d regret.  One day the archdemon had shown up, noticed how insane Castiel was going when he didn’t have anything to do and casually mentioned that he had a couple garrisons that he wanted an angel to help with the training, saying a particular white eye under his command had mentioned Castiel at one point.  Which was basically how the seraph found himself in change of one garrison of angels and ten of demons.  It was probably the only thing that made Castiel happy now, kept him so busy that moments like the one he was in currently—where he didn’t have anything to do—were few and far in-between. 

 

On this particular day Castiel had flown to a familiar set of cliffs overlooking the sea, and was now sitting and dangling his legs over the edge as he watched the sun rise.  It would be a cloudy day, but some of the fog was dissipating.  This was the only place Castiel had visited more than once in his time off, usually he would just fly randomly for a little bit before stopping and landing wherever looked nice.  This particular cliff had a small family of sandpipers below it and the birds made for wonderful conversationalists, if only because they gave him a short period of time where he didn’t have to care.  They didn’t know that Castiel’s mate was trapped and they would never see each other again, they didn’t know that Castiel couldn’t be alone with his thoughts or else he’d curl up in a ball from the emotional agony he shouldn’t even have, they didn’t know how close their world had come to ending.  They just asked him where the most edible things were, chatted for a while about the sun and then left, racing around on the sand and running from the water, oblivious to the world at large.  Currently none of the birds were awake yet, but Castiel had no problem waiting for the little pockets of disconnection they brought with them. 

So for now he just sat and tried to deal with being alone.  Only two of his garrisons were dispersed and the rest all had jobs that would take their time for at least another day.   He would only have to survive without thinking about Lucifer for a little while longer until the birds woke up.  He wondered cynically if this time he would actually manage it. 

 The sudden fluttering of wings shocked Castiel out of his musings, as he hadn’t actually felt anyone arriving.  Frowning, the seraph looked back and froze.  This was _definitely_ not possible, Castiel shrieked internally, urgently shoving away the hope that had traitorously sprung up.  Everyone had assured him that it wasn’t possible including the archangel the newcomer was posing as.  Even Sam had stopped looking for loopholes after getting into a huge fight with Gabriel about wasting his life and not listening to whatever Lucifer had written to him.  Castiel knew what Lucifer had written, which made this newcomer so much more of an impossibility. 

“Hey Cas” The newcomer grinned, and Castiel flinched at how much he sounded like his mate.

“What are you?” Castiel asked, the obsidian blade Lucifer had left behind sliding into his palm as he stood up.  Castiel’s own blade was in hell, in the property Lucifer had given him. 

The newcomer—hallucination, imposter, delusion—looked surprised at the sword, but then broke into a grin as if he couldn’t stop it.  “Cas, it’s me, I got out.”

Castiel shook his head, eyes narrowed. “No, you left no doubt that you would never be able to get out, so again, what are you?”

Any emotion the newcomer might’ve had was unreadable under the joy as his eyes darted greedily across Cas’ face like he’d never get enough.  He took a step closer to the seraph “I didn’t think I ever would get out, but Father came, He let me out.”

“Father was in the garden?” Castiel asked, trying not to let the hand gripping the sword falter at this surprising news

“Father came to the garden to talk to me.” the newcomer corrected “I don’t think He was there the whole time.  Cas, it’s really me!  Listen, I don’t know how to reconnect our bond, but, just, let me try.”

Wings unfurled from the newcomers back and Castiel’s breath caught as the largest pair of shadow and ice wings stretched out towards him, a clear request that he desperately wanted to answer, able only to still his own wings but not to stop them from completely unfolding.  Instead, he forced himself to ask one more question.  “What about Michael?”

That question got the newcomer to flinch, but he kept his wings outstretched, lifting up his hands and smiling self-deprecatory. “Michael’s dead.”

Castiel’s head tilted to the side in surprise as he caught sight of the other’s hands, or rather, hand.  His right hand was completely missing and the arches of wings were burned into the skin up to his elbows.  The newcomer took another step forward and Castiel’s eyes flickered away from the brands.  Cautiously, he raised his wings, stretching them out and letting them brush against the newcomers.  The instant their feathers touched renewed awareness flooded through Castiel and he gasped, barely managing to sheath his sword as the newcomer—Lucifer!  It was actually Lucifer!—threw himself forward and gathered the seraph to him like a favorite toy, chanting Cas’ name under his breath like a mantra. 

“Lucifer” Castiel breathed in awe, letting Lucifer’s wings fold over his own and returning the hug that was more like frenzied clinging than any soft form of comfort. 

Shoving his face into Lucifer’s neck, Castiel breathed the archangel in as Lucifer pulled him tighter like he was trying to merge with him.  Lucifer’s new stump felt strange where it rested against Castiel’s wing bone, but it didn’t matter.  Nothing mattered except that he had his mate back, maybe harmed but at least alive.  And Father had been the one to bring him back.  In his head Castiel threw prayers of endless thanks and praise for this gift. 

Still repeating Cas’ name, Lucifer gripped Castiel’s hair to pull the seraph back so he could claim his lips, the kiss harsh but life-affirming.  Castiel pushed his wings into Lucifer’s, letting them mesh together and then holding them there.  Not as a prelude to anything, but a promise of _more_.  Because there could be more now, because Lucifer was back with Castiel, was home to stay. 

“You are back permanently.”  Castiel stated the thought aloud, it could have been a question but was phrased as a demand.  Castiel had never imagined he’d be the mate of any archangel, especially Lucifer, but no one was going to take him away from Castiel now that he had him back.  “If you ever plan to do something like that again you’re telling me so that I can go with you.”

Lucifer had the audacity to look fondly surprised at this order, one side of his mouth curving up as he asked, “You sure you want to ask that? ‘Cause I have a pretty good history of getting stuck in cages”

“It wasn’t a question.  You are not leaving me again” Castiel replied and narrowed his eyes, his hands tightening around the back of Lucifer’s neck.  He may be submissive more often than not in their relationship, but he was _not_ going to be left behind again.  Ever again.  Even if it took guilt tripping and manipulation, it was not going to happen.

A mix of amusement and awe appeared on Lucifer’s face and he finally agreed, leaning down to chastely kiss Castiel before responding.  “Alright, I won’t”

Castiel hummed in agreement, leaning down and pressing his face back into Lucifer’s neck.  He could feel Lucifer running his hands all over Castiel as if checking to make sure he was there, and was reminded of the stump.  “What happened to your hand?”

“Huh? Oh, that.  Pretty much everything” The last part was said with a laugh and Castiel tilted his head to the side, leaning it on Lucifer’s shoulder as he gazed questioningly at his mate, who, with that prompting continued.  “Michael cut it, I burnt it in his grace and then the clock did it’s exploding this or whatever while I was holding it. 

Here Lucifer’s tone sobered and he looked at Castiel like he was lost.  “That’s what happened to Michael.  I was holding the clock against his neck and it killed him.  I didn’t mean for him to die.”

“It’s okay.” Castiel assured belatedly, aware that this was one of the times that people were supposed to lie for comfort.  He knew Lucifer had little problem with killing his angelic brethren if the situation called for it, and from what Castiel had deduced he had no qualms about torturing Raphael for Castiel, but this was completely different.  Killing Michael must’ve been like killing Sam would be. “You weren’t aware that that would kill him.” 

Lucifer was clearly still troubled about that, but let it rest, going back to re-exploring Castiel. 

The seraph didn’t know how long they’d been standing there and just breathing each other in, but it must’ve been hours because before he knew it there were small ‘ _weet’_ sounds coming from the sand below them.  The noises were clearly demanding and in response to his automatic tensing for movement he could feel Lucifer soundlessly laughing. 

“So Cas, made some new friends in my absence?”  Lucifer asked lightly, his eyes shining.

“I’m not sure that I would consider them friends.  I often help them to find food, but we rarely have any interactions outside of that.” Castiel corrected, but flew them both down to the sand as a distraction anyways.

Lucifer’s start was barely there, but Castiel caught it along with the quiet grumble.  “And here I thought that would go away when I became an angel.  You could ask you know”

“Why would it go away? Just because you’re an angel doesn’t mean I can’t fly you places” Castiel asked in confusion.  The resulting laughter let him know that he also hadn’t needed to respond to this either.  And here Castiel had thought that he was getting better at human interactions. 

“I love you Cas” Lucifer murmured as he pulled away, still resolutely holding onto Castiel with his good hand as he turned to look at the sandpipers.  Castiel smiled at the concentrated look on his mates face as Lucifer spoke to the birds and largely gestured.  “Well hello there.  I don’t know what you eat, but there are some fish that-a-ways”

The sandpipers _weeted_ a few more times, confused at the presence of a second angel, but eventually scurried off, chirping amongst themselves.  Lucifer laughed at their antics and Castiel smiled broadly, uncaring except for the extreme happiness from having his mate back here with him.  He could feel the contentment rolling off Lucifer in waves and knew he was mirroring it with his own. 

“I love you too Lucifer” Castiel replied to Lucifer’s previous remark, getting an uninhibited grin of delight in return. 

Castiel slid his hand into Lucifer’s, twining his fingers with the archangels and enjoying the confirmation of life found in the reciprocated contact.  It still wasn’t close enough, so Castiel stealthily merged his wings with and underneath the others, pressing up against his mate’s side.  From the way Lucifer’s wings curled over Castiel’s back and how the seraph became the sudden focus of Lucifer’s green gaze, his mate was noticing Castiel’s clinginess and not even trying to act like it was unrequited.  Castile had no idea how this would all work out, with Lucifer having been ‘dead’ for so long, in hell alone there’d be tons of problems with management and ranking, not even touching on the rest of the lives that had been so affected by loss and had been forced to rebuild.  Castiel and Lucifer would have to work subtly and, or violently around many demons and angels for whom Lucifer being trapped in the garden and Father letting him out wouldn’t be good enough of a reason or explanation for the events that had passed.  All in all there was going to be a lot of stuff and people to fix, ones that turned out wrong and those that didn’t even work in the first place.  But for now it was perfect because Castiel had his mate, alive and with him.

And that?  That would _always_ be enough.


End file.
